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Contends that representations of Spain, Spanish America, Spanishness, and Spanish Americanness are integral elements in the evolution of early national and antebellum US literature. John C. Havard argues that Spanish-speaking countries have long held a broad fascination for Americans and that stock narratives regarding these peoples were central to the period's US literature.
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HISPANICISM and EARLY US LITERATURE HISPANICISM and EARLY US LITERATURE Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and the Origins of US National Identity John C. Havard The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0 380 uapress.ua.edu Copyright © 2018 by the University of Alabama Press All rights reserved. Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should be addressed to the University of Alabama Press. Typeface: Minion Cover image: ἀ e Cuban Melodrama by Charles J. Taylor, chromolithograph, Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1896; Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-28912 Cover design: David Nees Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Havard, John C., author. Title: Hispanicism and early US literature : Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and the origins of US national identity / John C. Havard. Description: Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017038246| ISBN 9780817319779 (cloth) | ISBN 9780817391744 (e book) Subjects: LCSH: American literature—Latin American influences. | American literature—Spanish influences. | National characteristics, American, in literature. | American literature—19th century—History and criticism. | American literature—18th century—History and criticism. | Latin America—In literature. | Spain—In literature. Classification: LCC PS159.L38 H38 2018 | DDC 809/.897—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017038246 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Par t I. The Bl a ck Legend , Hispanicis m, and the E mergence of Natio nal Identit y in the E ar l y United St ates 1. Joel Barlow’s ἀ e Vision of Columbus and ἀ e Columbiad: US National Identity and Spain 37 2. James Fenimore Cooper’s Mercedes of Castile and Jack Tier: Realism and Hispanicism 64 3. Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” as Critique of Hispanicist Exceptionalism: Cosmopolitanism and Ironizing Identity 94 Par t II. Hispanicis m and the C a se of Cuba 4. Mary Peabody Mann’s Juanita: Cuba and US National Identity 119 5. José Antonio Saco’s Antiannexationist Essays: Cuba, Hispanicism, and National Identity 147 Epilogue: The Hispanicist Forebears of 1898 165 Notes 187 Works Cited 193 Index 207 Acknowledgments I could not have completed this project without intellectual support from relatives, friends, and colleagues. Many teachers, first of all, deserve acknowl edgment. During my time as a graduate student at the University of Rochester, John Michael, Ezra Tawil, Stephanie Li, Jeffrey Tucker, and the late and missed Frank Shuffelton played important roles in shaping my thinking. Jorge Camacho, Leon Jackson, and Paul Allen Miller at the University of South Carolina and Robert Coleman and Moira Amado-McCoy at the University of South Alabama also greatly influenced me. My thinking has also benefited from conversations with friends and fellow scholars. Especially notable are Justin Coyne, Russell Sbriglia, Steve Lownes, Jennie Lightweis-Goff, Peter Zogas, Melanie Hernandez, Thomas Hallock, Donald E. Pease, Molly Winter, Bryce Condit, and Hilarie Lloyd. My work was supported by a New Faculty Grant-in-Aid awarded by Auburn University at Montgomery. This grant enabled me to conduct archival research at the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and Antioch College’s Antioch