No Place like Home: The Uses of America in 1790s British Fiction

Abstract

In both form and content, British novels of the 1790s that include depictions of America offer complex and conflicting representations of the erstwhile colonies. Some novelists, including ‘Jacobin’ critics of English society and culture, portray America as a superior alternative and an imagined location for utopian communities, but these idealized spaces are often separate and distinct from the rest of the country. Others convey the opposite impression through satiric attacks on America, or more commonly, through evocations of abiding attachment to Britain. Despite their divergent emphases, these texts share a recognition of persistent cultural and economic links between the two nations. They also commonly provide a paucity of detail about America, thus rendering it primarily a virtual space in which British readers can confront serious questions about their own national identity, character, and institutions.