Using Fiction to Suggest Regional Differences in the Ways Selected Antebellum Rural Americans Experienced their Domestic Space

Abstract

The research for this article was undertaken to demonstrate how fiction can be used as a source in the investigation of the ways in which people in the past have used and felt about their domestic environments. Although scholars have published many books and articles concerning the stylistic characteristics and construction techniques of early houses and their furnishings, much less is known about how people lived in these environments. To date, most studies focusing on people's use of, and attitudes toward, their domestic space are contemporary. This permits the inhabitants to be interviewed and observed. To achieve a proper historical perspective, the investigation of differing uses of domestic space must be extended to the past. However, the scarcity of surviving information requires unusual resourcefulness in locating and interpreting relevant data. Fiction published during the period under investigation is a valuable source. These fictional descriptions can be analyzed in a variety of ways. In this paper the author has chosen to focus on regional differences in the uses of domestic space. This approach was suggested by the many studies which have been undertaken to determine regional differences in the stylistic characteristics of architecture and the decorative arts.