The Document in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literature
The emergence of modern documentary poetics is often attributed to twentieth-century writers who were interested in redefining the purpose and limits of artistic expression, a redefinition that occurred in the context of labor exploitation, racial violence, and ethnic cleansing. This panel asks participants to consider the nineteenth-century precursors of modern documentary literature. How and to what ends do documents and literature intersect throughout the long nineteenth century? What constitutes a document and how might this definition enable new ways of interrogating issues of race, gender, class, indigeneity, and ethnicity? What formal features and aesthetic innovations emerge during the nineteenth century?