Show simple item record

dc.contributor.advisorBarnard, Philip
dc.contributor.authorWilliams, Nathaniel Langdon
dc.date.accessioned2012-11-26T17:08:23Z
dc.date.available2012-11-26T17:08:23Z
dc.date.issued2010-12-31
dc.date.submitted2010
dc.identifier.otherhttp://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11254
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1808/10415
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation analyzes the representation of technology in U.S. popular fiction of the nineteenth century, particularly as it relates to concepts of imperial expansion that shore up the period's constructions of American identity. The proto-science fiction works of Edgar Allan Poe, Edward S. Ellis, Luis Senarens, Mark Twain, Pauline Hopkins, and Garrett P. Serviss all imagine technology's ability to facilitate expansion and construct an American technocratic ideal. As these dime novels and popular works establish the dominant template for the portrayal of technologically enhanced exploration, they articulate two mutually reinforcing narratives tied to U.S. empire-building and power. First, these works imagine scenarios in which technology enables the same kind of travel and violent conquest found in imperialism, but develops such ideas into a recurring motif that frequently resists or complicates outright jingoism or nationalism. Second, they consider the role that technologically enhanced exploration plays in supporting a broader U.S. imperial identity, frequently by reiterating earlier, prevailing articulations regarding what it meant to be American. What begins as a narrative that imagines the possibilities of technology becomes a means to imagine scenarios in which prevailing views of race, religion, and history can be examined and reasserted.
dc.format.extent196 pages
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of Kansas
dc.rightsThis item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
dc.subjectAmerican literature
dc.subjectHistory of science
dc.subjectAmerican studies
dc.subjectDime novels
dc.subjectImperialism
dc.subjectPoe, Edgar Allan
dc.subjectScience fiction
dc.subjectTechnology
dc.subjectTwain, Mark
dc.titleSteam Men, Edisons, Connecticut Yankees: Technocracy and Imperial Identity in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction
dc.typeDissertation
dc.contributor.cmtememberHarris, Susan K
dc.thesis.degreeDisciplineEnglish
dc.thesis.degreeLevelPh.D.
kusw.oastatusna
kusw.oapolicyThis item does not meet KU Open Access policy criteria.
kusw.bibid7643142
dc.rights.accessrightsopenAccess


Files in this item

Thumbnail

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record