Homelessness in American Literature: Romanticism, Realism and Testimony

by Allen,John

• ISBN13: 9780415945899
• ISBN10: 0415945895
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book analyzes the theme of homelessness in American literature from the Civil War through the depression. Drawing on the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Horatio Alger, Stephen Crane, Jacob Riis, Jack London, Meridel Le Sueur and many others, it reveals how homelessness has been either romanticized or objectified.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	vii
INTRODUCTION Representations of Homelessness in American Literature	3	(20)
CHAPTER ONE "In My Father's House Are Many Mansions": Homelessness and Domesticity in Uncle Tom's Cabin	23	(16)
CHAPTER TWO "Street Arabs" and the "Tramp Menace": The Function of Homeless Characters in the Work of Horatio Alger	39	(24)
CHAPTER THREE The Other Half and How It Lives: Jacob Rus and Stephen Crane's Vision of Poverty and Homelessness	63	(32)
CHAPTER FOUR Romance of The Road: Jack London and the Publication of Tramp Autobiographies in America	95	(20)
CHAPTER FIVE "I Did Not Write These Stories": Mendel Le Sueur and American Testimonial Literature	115	(22)
CONCLUSION American Testimonial Literature and The Contemporary Discourse of Homelessness	137	(14)
NOTES	151	(24)
WORKS CITED	175	(10)
INDEX	185