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- Publisher
- University of Nebraska Press
- Copyright
- Copyright © University of Nebraska Press
- ISSN
- 1944-6519
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Turning the Corner Romance as Economic Critique in Norris's Trilogy of Wheat and Du Bois's The Quest of the Silver Fleece , Saint Xavier University In his essay "A Plea for Romantic Fiction" (1901), Frank Norris famously defends the romance against those who conflate it with sentimentalism and argues that the former is not the "conjurer's trick box . . . meant only to amuse," but rather romance is the "instrument with which we may go straight through clothes and tissues and wrappings of flesh down deep into the red living heart of things" (1165). Such a definition not only defends and elevates the romance, but it also opens up and re-imagines naturalism, which has normally been considered this probing instrument used for the examination of the material and cultural forces that act upon individuals. How romance comes to be an instrument of social examination and critique and the effect of such an approach on conventional definitions of naturalism is an issue I will explore by placing Norris's unfinished Trilogy of Wheat (The Octopus, 1900; The Pit, 1902) in conversation with W. E. B. Du Bois's novel The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911). While these three novels
Journal
Studies in American Naturalism – University of Nebraska Press
Published: Jan 20, 2012