|
Brother Jonathan (novel)
''Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders'' is an 1825 historical novel by American writer John Neal. The title refers to Brother Jonathan, a popular personification of New England and the broader United States. The story follows protagonist Walter Harwood as he and the nation around him both come of age through the American Revolution. The novel explores cross-cultural relationships and highlights cultural diversity within the Thirteen Colonies, stressing egalitarianism and challenging the conception of a unified American nation. It features mixed-race Anglo- Indigenous characters and depicts them as the inheritors of North America. The book's sexual themes drew negative reactions from contemporary critics. These themes were explicit for the period, addressing female sexual virtue and male guilt for sexual misdeeds. Literature scholars have praised ''Brother Jonathan''s extensive and early use of realism in depicting American culture and speech. Using phonetic transcript ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Neal (writer)
John Neal (August 25, 1793 – June 20, 1876) was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1810s and 1870s in the United States and Great Britain, championing American literary nationalism and regionalism in their earliest stages. Neal advanced the development of American art, fought for women's rights, advocated the end of slavery and racial prejudice, and helped establish the American gymnastics movement. The first American author to use natural diction and a pioneer of colloquialism, John Neal is the first to use the phrase ''son-of-a-bitch'' in a work of fiction. He attained his greatest literary achievements between 1817 and 1835, during which time he was America's first daily newspaper columnist, the first American published in British literary journals, author of the first history of American literature, America's first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
