Race, Slavery, and Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature

This 2006 book raises controversial questions about the intersections between race, literature and American intellectual history.

Arthur Riss (Author)

9780521120203, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 September 2009

248 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.37 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Riss is a deft, polished writer and a gifted literary scholar.' Literature & History

Moving boldly between literary analysis and political theory, contemporary and antebellum US culture, Arthur Riss invites readers to rethink prevailing accounts of the relationship between slavery, liberalism, and literary representation. Situating Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Frederick Douglass at the center of antebellum debates over the person-hood of the slave, this 2006 book examines how a nation dedicated to the proposition that 'all men are created equal' formulates arguments both for and against race-based slavery. This revisionary argument promises to be unsettling for literary critics, political philosophers, historians of US slavery, as well as those interested in the link between literature and human rights.

Introduction: the figure a 'person'makes
1. Slaves and persons
2. Family values and racial essentialism in Uncle Tom's Cabin
3. Eva's hair and the sentiments of race
4. A is for anything: US liberalism and the making of The Scarlet Letter
5. The art of discrimination: The Marble Faun, 'Chiefly About War Matters', and the aesthetics of anti-black racism
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]