Harriet Beecher Stowe and the circulation of texts

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation argues that even though Harriet Beecher Stowe participated in models of circulation throughout her career, they were shaped by drastic changes in the technology of print and transportation. Stowe witnessed changes in print culture that, in her view, detrimentally altered social relationships that print once fostered between people. This dissertation argues that Stowe saw a tightening relationship between publishers and other entities that overwhelmed readers with abundance. This profusion of print made it less personally valuable to readers and drastically altered print's ability to foster communal relationships. This dissertation examines Stowe's uneasiness and resistance to later models of print culture through her depiction of the role of letters, her use of prefaces, and through the recirculation of ideas in altered material forms echoing the scrapbook.