Civil War Literature

[Fire101]

Although literature during the American Civil War time period was scarce, there were still stories that were published during this chaotic time such as “A Mystery of Heroism” and “What I Saw of Shiloh.” However, literature during this time period seems to be different from the literature that was published just a few years before the Civil War. Before the Civil War, Transcendental works were on the rise and Walden, one of the most famous works during this time, was published just four years prior to the beginning of the battles. There are many notably difference between Transcendentalism and Civil War Literature such as the focus of the stories, tone, plot, etc. What are your thoughts about how the events occurring during the early 1860s affected the drastic change in the literature published during the Civil War? :idea:

[Knight316]

Ok so I think that since authors prior to the civil war thought mainly about bettering themselves, they really didnt see what was happening until it was too late. Once the war broke out, chaos followed. No one saw the war coming most northerners thought that it would be over in a day or two with one battle. Instead they found a new horror and were so shocked by what was going on that they basically started to focus only on what is really happening.

[wessexgirl]

I think you should differentiate which war you mean. As someone from the UK, when I see "The Civil War" mentioned, I immediately think of our Civil War, (17th century). And of course we have some great stuff from that era, with people like Milton and Marvell around :).

[Virgil]

It's right there in the first sentence, Wessex.

[PabloQ]

Have we revealed a secret, Virgil? That avatar looks amazingly like Logos. Or is that just a wardrobe malfunction.
Anyway, back on topic, I think you need to look at the American Civil War in how it's portrayed in literature after the Civil War. The Red Badge of Courage is probably the best known work about the war, and it was written over 30 years after the event (and is about war and soldiers in general). The American Civil War, to this day, has been overly romanticized and there's very little literary product, that I'm aware of, that really deal with what a horrific conflict it was. If you look at Gone With the Wind, that's what I mean by overly romanticized.
but I can't think of too many examples where the war actually influenced the course of American literature one way or the other.

[wessexgirl]

It's right there in the first sentence, Wessex.

It is now :).

[msulaiman]

Does A Rose for Emily have to do sth with this ?

I mean as a story has the theme of Racism and discusses this aspect of distiguishing between Northerners and southerners!

[byquist]

Diary of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs was in there somewhere, maybe a few yrs. before the War. Excellent reading.

[Fire101]

Ok so I think that since authors prior to the civil war thought mainly about bettering themselves, they really didnt see what was happening until it was too late. Once the war broke out, chaos followed. No one saw the war coming most northerners thought that it would be over in a day or two with one battle. Instead they found a new horror and were so shocked by what was going on that they basically started to focus only on what is really happening.


Knight316, i agree with you on how you believe that prior to the Civil War, authors focused on educating others on self reform. However, this war quickly ended this type of literature as this war that was expected to be a quick simple war turned out to be a war that stretched out for a much longer period of time. This brought of chaos and horror to the writers and people as everyone seemed to be overwhelmed with the news of the brutality seen on the battle field and news of the many dead Americans. The war abruptly forced people to stop thinking in a philosophical way as many authors had before. Instead, people were forced to begin thinking realistically as they had to face all of the deaths and the devastating war at hand.
Thus, a major shift in literature shown during this time period was shown in the focus of the stories. Transcendental writers focused their works on an idea which they developed throughout their work as seen through Emerson's "Nature" where he develops the importance of nature to transcendentalism and how it can be used to aid self reform. However, the war forced people to start facing reality instead of dreaming of an ideal world and people. Consequentially, the focus shifted from an idea to some action that occurred during battle and even the results of the brutality seen throughout the Civil War. This is demonstrated through "A Mystery of Heroism" as it is focused on a soldier named Collins and his courageous attempt to preserve his pride by running across the battlefield to get watter. The short story incorporates many instances of descriptive diction that illustrates the chaos of war. What do you all think about this? Can you all think of other changes due to the war? And sorry because I have not read either Diary of a Slave Girl or A Rose for Emily.... :(

[nickname0811]

There are a lot of unique characteristics of the civil war literature
for example, descriptive diction, chaotic plot, narrative structure, simple and realistic plot, extreme actions, specific dialect, cynical tone, and objective narrator:yawnb::yawnb:

[Jozanny]

Interesting thesis Fire, though I am not an expert on the Walden (and maybe Leaves of Grass?) rupture, which then gets us to post-war literature, such as Crane, who I assumed, correctly, would be dragged into this. I do not disagree with Pablo, only I'd caution.

Crane did next to no research when he wrote RBoC; it is a fine literary effort, but not necessarily realist Civil War material--although I suspect it isn't realism you're after, but thematic changes.

Let me think about this and review my library. Could a credible argument be made that there there would have never been a William Faulkner without the memoirs of Sherman and Grant? Sherman is actually a decent writer for being such a military man. But like Pablo, I am only aware of post-war literature, and not what was published prior to the implementation of Reconstruction.

[metal134]

While I believe that much of his writing came out after the Civil War, I think that for an idea of the kind of trancedentalism you speak of, you need look no further than Fredrick Douglas. Though his ideas were decades ahead of their time, there's no question that his ideas had a profound impact on Civil War era America and continues to have an impact to this day.

[Stargazer86]

I don't know if you're looking for Civil War poetry as well, but Walt Whitman is a fantastic poet who wrote during and about the American Civil War.

I think the American Civil War, as with any war always fuels great, moving writing. It is a time when emotions and bravery and dramatic events are at thier peak. Brother against brother, the issue of slavery, mass scale death and destruction, the changing of values and rights in the country, loyalties and a million other things one could be moved to write about present themselves to be recorded; not just as dry historical fact, but as the capture of human emotion and experience.