Understanding Charles Sealsfield, Understanding America

Charles Sealsfield, a runaway Moravian monk, reinvented himself as an American author and the self-proclaimed founder of a new novel form. Now long forgotten, his fiction, travel books and correspondence reassess his contribution to the American and German canons.

«Schuchalter's comprehensive study of the enigmatic author Charles Sealsfield is a welcome contribution to German-American studies. He convincingly explains the development of Sealsfield's political philosophy: After having fled Europe, the former Catholic priest discovered liberalism and saw its promises fulfilled in the New World before getting disgruntled with actual developments in the USA since the late 1830s.»

(Wynfrid Kriegleder, Professor of Modern German Literature, University of Vienna)

This work explores the literary phenomenon of Charles Sealsfield, known throughout much of his career as «the Great Unknown» and for a brief time as «Seatsfield, the Greatest American Author.» Sealsfield, a runaway Moravian monk, living in permanent disguise, reinvented himself as an American author and the self-proclaimed founder of a new novel form. Despite publishing works both in English and in German, he has been relegated to a marginalized, if not forgotten, place in the American canon and a constricted place in the German canon. This study examines his fiction and travel books, as well as his correspondence, and strives for a reassessment of his achievement in both canons.

Autorentext

Jerry Schuchalter is a former Associate Professor at the Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland. He has taught at universities in Finland, Germany, and Russia. He has published widely on Charles Sealsfield, German-American literature, as well as on the Holocaust and Norman Mailer.

Inhalt

Contents: Sealsfield's Lexicon A Political Fable Europe Redux A New Kind of Romance Mexico in a New Key «The Moneycracy» «The Great American Novel» «Brave New World» Back to the Future «The Pilgrims' Regress» Epilogue:«The ghostlyMr. Sealsfield» or Sealsfield's Enigmatic Correspondence.