Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the American Essay
- The Cambridge History of the American Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I The Emergence of the American Essay (1710–1865)
- Part II Voicing the American Experiment (1865–1945)
- 9 Writing Freedom before and after Emancipation
- 10 Social Justice and the American Essay
- 11 “Zones of Contention” in the Genteel Essay
- 12 The American Comic Essay
- 13 Nineteenth-Century American Travel Essays: Aesthetics, Modernity, and National Identity
- 14 American Pragmatism: An Essayistic Conception of Truth
- 15 The Essay in the Harlem Renaissance
- 16 The Southern Agrarians and the New Criticism
- 17 Subjective and Objective: Newspaper Columns
- 18 The Experience of Art: The Essay in Visual Culture
- 19 The Essay in American Music
- Part III Postwar Essays and Essayism (1945–2000)
- Part IV Toward the Contemporary American Essay (2000–2020)
- Recommendations for Further Reading
- Index
17 - Subjective and Objective: Newspaper Columns
from Part II - Voicing the American Experiment (1865–1945)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2024
- The Cambridge History of the American Essay
- The Cambridge History of the American Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I The Emergence of the American Essay (1710–1865)
- Part II Voicing the American Experiment (1865–1945)
- 9 Writing Freedom before and after Emancipation
- 10 Social Justice and the American Essay
- 11 “Zones of Contention” in the Genteel Essay
- 12 The American Comic Essay
- 13 Nineteenth-Century American Travel Essays: Aesthetics, Modernity, and National Identity
- 14 American Pragmatism: An Essayistic Conception of Truth
- 15 The Essay in the Harlem Renaissance
- 16 The Southern Agrarians and the New Criticism
- 17 Subjective and Objective: Newspaper Columns
- 18 The Experience of Art: The Essay in Visual Culture
- 19 The Essay in American Music
- Part III Postwar Essays and Essayism (1945–2000)
- Part IV Toward the Contemporary American Essay (2000–2020)
- Recommendations for Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter highlights the importance of newspapers as essential publishing venues for American essayists during the 1880–1920 period. During this time, newspaper columns or editorials were some of the most powerful manifestations of the American essay. A new kind of personal essay emerged, revealing tensions between various categories: the genteel and the modern, progressivism and prejudice, subjectivity and objectivity. While essayistic objectivity aspired to provide verifiable evidence and to be “truthful” in its interpretations of the world, essayistic subjectivity attempted to engage the reader by means of the essayist’s own perceptions and experiences. Significantly, during this period, the essay sought new vessels for authorial subjectivity, be it in the form of fiction or nonfiction, expanding the possibilities of the personal essay. Important essayists, columnists, and editorialists of the period included H. L. Mencken, Anna Julia Cooper, Robert Benchley, Ida B. Wells, and Heywood Broun. For many of these writers, the political and personal are inseparable, and the essay often functions as a form of authorial mediation, of narrative outrage, and a call to social action.
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- The Cambridge History of the American Essay , pp. 280 - 299Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023