2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

A Study of "the American Cultural Circle" Constructed at the End of the 19th Century : Focusing on the International Novelists

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20520249
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Literature in English
Research Institution	Toyo University
Principal Investigator	KITAHARA Taeko Toyo University, 文学部, 准教授 (90315820)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	米文学 / 米文学史 / F.Marion Crawford / Thomas Crawford / 新古典主義アメリカ彫刻 / イタリア / Henry James / ロマンス
Research Abstract	This study explores how a kind of "American Cultural Circle" was constructed at the end of the nineteenth century among Euro-American intellectuals--international novelists in particular, who were friends, confreres, and rivals. Here, I especially pay attention to an American novelist who lived and worked in Italy, F.Marion Crawford, as the key person of this movement. After examining his literary/cultural works, I have observed the novelist's wide-ranging influence on various cultural dimensions, from literary criticism to popular culture. Simultaneously, I have researched the novelist's father, Thomas Crawford, an American sculptor. By surveying his career and sculptures, the study has demonstrated that what I previously considered the "American Cultural Circle" among the international novelists had actually already begun to appear in the mid-nineteenth century, including diverse figures, such as lawyers, historians, poets, and socialites.