From the Ideal to the Real: American Literature in the Post-civil War Era – a Study

In the history of the United States, the years following the Civil War symbolized a time of healing and rebuilding. However, for those engaged in serious literary circles that period was full of upheaval. In fact, it can be said that a “literary civil war” raged on between the camps of the romantics and the realists and later, the naturalists (“History 426”). What was caught in between was the literature called the genteel tradition. The dictionary meanings as well as the synonyms for the word genteel include “respectable, mannered, dainty, polite, elegant, stylish, and refined." In fact, it was the American philosopher George Santayana who had characterized the literature that had provided a moral medium in fiction and poetry in the postCivil War period as the genteel tradition. The eminent literary figures of this tradition had emphasized the ethical imperative in their novels, stories and periodical literature. However, the genteel tradition in the nineteenth century America was later vilified as it had represented the old mentality inherited from Europe the code of Ladies and Gentlemen. The following paragraphs delineate the historical milieu from which the genteel tradition literature sprang, spread and ultimately failed to survive the emerging modern themes of realism and naturalism.