A Study of "the American Cultural Circle" Constructed at the End of the 19th Century : Focusing on the International Novelists

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This study explores how a kind of "American Cultural Circle" was constructed at the end of the nineteenth century among Euro-American intellectuals--international novelists in particular, who were friends, confreres, and rivals. Here, I especially pay attention to an American novelist who lived and worked in Italy, F.Marion Crawford, as the key person of this movement. After examining his literary/cultural works, I have observed the novelist's wide-ranging influence on various cultural dimensions, from literary criticism to popular culture. Simultaneously, I have researched the novelist's father, Thomas Crawford, an American sculptor. By surveying his career and sculptures, the study has demonstrated that what I previously considered the "American Cultural Circle" among the international novelists had actually already begun to appear in the mid-nineteenth century, including diverse figures, such as lawyers, historians, poets, and socialites.