UC Irvine

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

"Everything Was Strange": Regional Nationalisms and Ironic Identities in Early National American Fiction.

By

Brian João Garcia

Doctor of Philosophy in English

University of California, Irvine, 2015

Professor Steven Mailloux, Chair

This dissertation examines the ironic treatment of the idea of the nation in works of US American (henceforth referred to simply as "American") fiction written and published during the Early National period (approximately 1776-1828). Building from various theories of nationalism, rhetoric, and myth, I argue that authors of this period show an acute awareness of the creative, even mythical, nature of national identity and deliberately seek to invent the nation's constitutive mythos while also laying the foundation for its emergent literary culture. Though this endeavor is taken on by many (perhaps most) American authors of the period, my study focuses specifically on works that do so by simultaneously undermining, satirizing, and/or deconstructing the national-mythological stances of their rivals'--and sometimes even their own--rhetorical and political stances. By focusing on ostensibly non-didactic works, I will show the ways in which an ongoing concern with emergent national identity pervaded and was shaped by popular culture and regional loyalties.

The critique of national mythologies carried out in this dissertation is two-pronged: firstly, it evaluates how Early National authors use ironic expressions of existing literary forms to reveal their own understanding of the construction of national identity through cultural production and the ways in which they simultaneously mock and create national foundational myths and traditions. Secondly, it takes a meta-mythographical view, challenging prevailing myths in American literary scholarship which hold to an outmoded understanding of the origins of American literature and the skill set of its practitioners.