The domestic tragedy of an entire family being murdered is transformed by Brown’s pen into an ‘American tale’ spiced up with local references such as Pennsylvania’s German heritage, the colony’s religious idealism, and its transatlantic importance in terms of warfare and immigration. One of the earliest major American novels, Wieland (1798) is a thrilling tale of suspense and intrigue set in rural Pennsylvania in the 1760s. Wieland is a ‘fictitious history’ written in line with Brown’s literary program to exemplify the passions and folly of human actors. Brown’s first major novel serves as a narrative laboratory in which he dissects the capacity of human beings to act according to their own volitions, showing how specific social features or forces limit or constrain agency. First published in 1798, it distinguishes the true beginning of his career. An American Tale (1798) is deeply embedded in Brown’s questions about the socio-institutional scene of literature and what constitutes the field of literature in post-revolutionary America. Wieland or The Transformation is the first major work by Charles Brockden Brown. It seeks to demonstrate that his first major novel Wieland or, The Transformation. In light of current critical trends, this survey essay reassesses Brown’s role as writer of programmatic and experimental narratives.
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