ABSTRACT
This book analyzes the theme of homelessness in American literature from the Civil War through the depression. Drawing on the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Horatio Alger, Stephen Crane, Jacob Riis, Jack London, Meridel Le Sueur and many others, it reveals how homelessness has been either romanticized or objectified.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter One|15 pages
“In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions”
Homelessness and Domesticity in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
chapter Two|23 pages
“Street Arabs” and the “Tramp Menace”
The Function of Homeless Characters in the Work of Horatio Alger
chapter Three|32 pages
The Other Half and How It Lives
Jacob Riis and Stephen Crane’s Vision of Poverty and Homelessness
chapter Four|19 pages
Romance of The Road
Jack London and the Publication of Tramp Autobiographies in America
chapter Five|22 pages
“I Did Not Write These Stories”
Meridel Le Sueur and American Testimonial Literature
chapter |14 pages
Conclusion
American Testimonial Literature and the Contemporary Discourse of Homelessness
