Artistic Liberties

American Literary Realism and Graphic Illustration, 1880-1905

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, General Art, Art History, American, Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book Artistic Liberties by Adam Sonstegard, University of Alabama Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Adam Sonstegard ISBN: 9780817386979
Publisher: University of Alabama Press Publication: March 15, 2014
Imprint: University Alabama Press Language: English
Author: Adam Sonstegard
ISBN: 9780817386979
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Publication: March 15, 2014
Imprint: University Alabama Press
Language: English

Artistic Liberties is a landmark study of the illustrations that originally accompanied now-classic works of American literary realism and the ways editors, authors, and illustrators vied for authority over the publications.

Though today, we commonly read major works of nineteenth-century American literature in unillustrated paperbacks or anthologies, many of them first appeared as magazine serials, accompanied by ample illustrations that sometimes made their way into the serials’ first printings as books. The graphic artists creating these illustrations often visually addressed questions that the authors had left for the reader to interpret, such as the complexions of racially ambiguous characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The artists created illustrations that depicted what outsiders saw in Huck and Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, rather than what Huck and Jim learned to see in one another. These artists even worked against the texts on occasion—for instance, when the illustrators reinforced the same racial stereotypes that writers such as Paul Laurence Dunbar had intended to subvert in their works.

Authors of American realism commonly submitted their writing to editors who allowed them little control over the aesthetic appearance of their work. In his groundbreaking Artistic Liberties, Adam Sonstegard studies the illustrations from these works in detail and finds that the editors employed illustrators who were often unfamiliar with the authors’ intentions and who themselves selected the literary material they wished to illustrate, thereby taking artistic liberties through the tableaux
they created.

Sonstegard examines the key role that the appointed artists played in visually shaping narratives—among them Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, Stephen Crane’s The Monster, and Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth—as audiences tended to accept their illustrations as guidelines for understanding the texts. In viewing these works as originally published, received, and interpreted, Sonstegard offers a deeper knowledge not only of the works, but also of the realities surrounding publication during this formative period in American literature.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Artistic Liberties is a landmark study of the illustrations that originally accompanied now-classic works of American literary realism and the ways editors, authors, and illustrators vied for authority over the publications.

Though today, we commonly read major works of nineteenth-century American literature in unillustrated paperbacks or anthologies, many of them first appeared as magazine serials, accompanied by ample illustrations that sometimes made their way into the serials’ first printings as books. The graphic artists creating these illustrations often visually addressed questions that the authors had left for the reader to interpret, such as the complexions of racially ambiguous characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The artists created illustrations that depicted what outsiders saw in Huck and Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, rather than what Huck and Jim learned to see in one another. These artists even worked against the texts on occasion—for instance, when the illustrators reinforced the same racial stereotypes that writers such as Paul Laurence Dunbar had intended to subvert in their works.

Authors of American realism commonly submitted their writing to editors who allowed them little control over the aesthetic appearance of their work. In his groundbreaking Artistic Liberties, Adam Sonstegard studies the illustrations from these works in detail and finds that the editors employed illustrators who were often unfamiliar with the authors’ intentions and who themselves selected the literary material they wished to illustrate, thereby taking artistic liberties through the tableaux
they created.

Sonstegard examines the key role that the appointed artists played in visually shaping narratives—among them Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, Stephen Crane’s The Monster, and Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth—as audiences tended to accept their illustrations as guidelines for understanding the texts. In viewing these works as originally published, received, and interpreted, Sonstegard offers a deeper knowledge not only of the works, but also of the realities surrounding publication during this formative period in American literature.

More books from University of Alabama Press

Cover of the book Cahokia's Complexities by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Rescuers of Skydivers Search Among the Clouds by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Homicidal Insanity, 1800-1985 by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Archaeology and Ancient Religion in the American Midcontinent by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book The Packhorseman by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book The Second Part of the Popular Errors by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Baking, Bourbon, and Black Drink by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Bioarchaeology of the American Southeast by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Between Contacts and Colonies by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Sacrifice and Survival by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Full Fathom Five by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Reading Southern History by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Aesthetics from Classical Greece to the Present by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book Beside the Troubled Waters by Adam Sonstegard
Cover of the book A Field on Fire by Adam Sonstegard
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy