Truth Stranger Than Fiction: Race, Realism, and the U.S. Literary Marketplace

by Augusta Rohrbach

Using the lens of business history to contextualize the development of an American literary tradition, Truth Stranger than Fiction shows how African American literature and culture greatly influenced the development of realism, which remains one of the most significant genres of writing in the United States. More specifically, Truth Stranger than Fiction traces the influences of generic conventions popularized in slave narratives - such as the use of authenticating details, as well as dialect, and a frank treatment of the human body - in later realist writings. As it unfolds, Truth Stranger than Fiction poses and explores a set of questions about the shifting relationship between literature and culture in the United States from 1830-1930 by focusing on the evolving trend of literary realism. Beginning with the question, 'How might slave narratives - heralded as the first indigenous literature by Theodore Parker - have influenced the development of American Literature?' the book develops connections between an emerging literary marketplace, the rise of the professional writer, and literary realism.

169 pages, Hardcover

First published February 23, 2002

About the author

Augusta Rohrbach’s study of literature emphasizes a “bottom up” theory of culture, essentially believing that culture is constructed by individual interests instead of being created as a whole. She specializes in North American literature; however, her interests range from the nineteenth to the twentieth century in American literature and culture. As a 1999–2000 Bunting Fellow, Rohrbach completed the manuscript for her book, Keeping It Real: Material Contexts of Literary Realism from Abolition to the Harlem Renaissance (St. Martin's Press, 2001). Rohrbach wrote Keeping It Real as a reread of nineteenth-century literary history through the lens of business history.
During the 2000–2001 fellowship year, Rohrbach will write a book manuscript, “Scribbling Women: Race, Gender, and the Literary Marketplace,” in which she will examine the role of the market in the careers of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women writers. The work and interests of the women varied greatly, but they share an uncanny skill to adapt themselves and their messages to the marketplace. This approach allows Rohrbach to explore aspects of literary history that have not been highlighted and to suggest a way to talk about this diverse collection of writers without flattening out their differences.
Rohrbach earned her PhD in English and comparative literature from Columbia University. She has received a number of honors and awards for her literary works, including a Ford Foundation Grant and a William Dean Howells Memorial Fellowship. She is the president of the Edith Wharton Society.