Transatlantic Imaginings: Modes of Romance and Visions of Culture, 1760-1867

For decades, scholars have viewed British and American Romanticism as distinct areas of scholarly focus, separated by both a literal and metaphorical ocean. Although some recent work has sought to bridge the oceanic gap between the fields, no scholar has substantially connected them through the genre that defined the period: romance. This dissertation unites British and American authors of the Romantic period, 1760-1867, through their employment, manipulation, and innovation of modes of romance that were popular during the time. More specifically, this dissertation argues that authors on both sides of the Atlantic used similar modes of romance—including historical romance, Gothic romance, and ballad romance—to deal with myriad cultural issues, including national identity and racial and gender (in)equality. The dissertation analyzes the respective historical romances of Walter Scott, James Fenimore Cooper, and Catharine Sedgwick; the Gothic romances of Charles Brockden Brown and Jane Austen; and the ballad romances of William Wordsworth and William Cullen Bryant. Reading British and American authors as they interpreted history through the lens of genre enables critics to see many points of contact between authors and cultures, as well as track the ways in which authors reimagined and repurposed modes of romance to deal with contemporary cultural issues.