Steam Men, Edisons, Connecticut Yankees: Technocracy and Imperial Identity in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the representation of technology in U.S. popular fiction of the nineteenth century, particularly as it relates to concepts of imperial expansion that shore up the period's constructions of American identity. The proto-science fiction works of Edgar Allan Poe, Edward S. Ellis, Luis Senarens, Mark Twain, Pauline Hopkins, and Garrett P. Serviss all imagine technology's ability to facilitate expansion and construct an American technocratic ideal. As these dime novels and popular works establish the dominant template for the portrayal of technologically enhanced exploration, they articulate two mutually reinforcing narratives tied to U.S. empire-building and power. First, these works imagine scenarios in which technology enables the same kind of travel and violent conquest found in imperialism, but develops such ideas into a recurring motif that frequently resists or complicates outright jingoism or nationalism. Second, they consider the role that technologically enhanced exploration plays in supporting a broader U.S. imperial identity, frequently by reiterating earlier, prevailing articulations regarding what it meant to be American. What begins as a narrative that imagines the possibilities of technology becomes a means to imagine scenarios in which prevailing views of race, religion, and history can be examined and reasserted