Emergence of an American Literature

In 1820 in the Edinburgh Review, English critic Sidney Smith poked fun at every American's national pride (or at least every American concerned with the intellectual reputation of his or her country) when he said: "In the four corners of the globe, who reads an American book?" As a modern American, I can brush this statement off easily because I know that the four corners of the globe do in fact read American books, but in 1820's, when this statement was made, it probably had a greater impact on the intellectuals of the day. That statement, and others like it, were only fuel for the fire, however, because many of the canonical writers in American literature came from this period between the 1820's and 1860s--writers like Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, and Dickinson.
F.O. Mathiessen called this period the "American Renaissance." Whether it was a "Renaissance" in the true meaning of the term, is up for debate, but what is certain is that this was a time when American writers thought seriously about what it meant to be American, the American character, America's past, and America's future. Writers like Irving and Cooper set the stage for the American scene with uniquely American backdrops and characters.
If Irving and Cooper laid the foundation for the American common man, Emerson laid the foundation for the American intellectual. In "The American Scholar," Emerson emphasizes the need for what he calls "Man Thinking." This type of scholar is self-reliant. He or she uses the past only to support the creation of a new future. Thoreau takes self-reliance a step further in “Walden.” He sees Americans as already giving in to social pressure and the materialism that goes along with it. His suggestion to finding truth and happiness is to go back to the basics of life, to live simply off the land. Both of these authors fall into the Transcendental tradition that focuses on going beyond the material world, but at the same time respecting nature as the reflection of that “beyond.”
At the opposite end of the spectrum during this time was the Gothic tradition, which focused on internal truth rather than outward truth, and the supernatural rather than the natural. Writers like Hawthorne and Poe explored the American Psyche. In stories like “The Birthmark,” Hawthorne warns against the tragic flaw of combining the Puritan inherited desire to seek perfection with an excessive faith in reason. He also warns of excessive self-confidence and individualism that seems to have become inherent in Americans since the Revolution. In these moral tales, Hawthorne reminds Americans that even though the Puritans sought perfection, they understood that humans are innately sinful and imperfect. Poe, on the other hand, may not have sought to teach Americans a moral lesson, he also explored the psyche’s extremes, suggesting the fragility of the human mind to worldly pressures.
Emerson and Thoreau explored how to have a healthy mind, Hawthorne and Poe explored the development of unhealthy minds, and Whitman embodied the healthy American mind that fulfilled Emerson’s optimism and defied Hawthorne’s pessimism. In “Song of Myself,” Whitman embraces notions of self-reliance and self-acceptance. His idea of self-reliance is seen in his confidence to create his own style of poetry, which follows Emerson’s warning to create rather than imitate. He also embraces self-acceptance, rather than attempting to achieve perfection, as Hawthorne warns against.
These writers take major steps in defining the American and establishing distinctly American literature. The definition of an American, according to these writers, is a combination of what an American should be and what an American shouldn’t be. An American should be self-reliant, confident, independent, in touch with nature, and intellectually independent. An American shouldn’t be materialistic, arrogant, or obsessed with perfection. The problem with these two sides of the definition is that there is a fine line that separates them and sometimes they overlap. For example, an American shouldn’t be arrogant, but should be confident and independent. Although arrogant is not the same as confident, many see Whitman, for example as arrogant, while others see him as just confident. The American definition is therefore somewhat fragile and contradictory meaning that many more authors will have to tackle this evasive idea.