Modernizing Solitude: The Networked Individual in Nineteenth-Century American Literature

An innovative and timely examination of the concept of solitude in nineteenth-century American literature

During the nineteenth century, the United States saw radical developments in media and communication that reshaped concepts of spatiality and temporality. As the telegraph, the postal system, and public transportation became commonplace, the country achieved a level of connectedness that was never possible before. At this level, physical isolation no longer equaled psychological separa...