In 1868, the writer John William De Forest coined the term “The Great American Novel” to describe an epic in prose that would “paint the American soul”, capture national ideals and manners, and help unify the United States after the Civil War. He hoped such a thing could be written soon, since the country seemed too immature yet for a real epic, in verse. But can there be such a thing as a prose epic?
Prose is a written simulation of someone’s speech. A character from a novel may enter folklore, such as Uriah Heep in Dickens’ David Copperfield; yet he always remains the author’s property. Prose fiction has evolved into a solitary, private pleasure that is the creation of a single writer’s imagination. But if a national myth is…
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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 2023