The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Politics

This volume addresses the political contexts in which nineteenth-century U.S. literature was conceived, consumed, and criticized.

John D. Kerkering (Edited by)

9781108815260, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 March 2025

403 pages
23 x 15 x 2.5 cm, 0.591 kg

'… an excellent study.' David McAllister, Victorian Studies

The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Politics addresses the political contexts in which nineteenth-century American literature was conceived, consumed, and criticized. Individual chapters examine how US literature from this period engaged with broad political concepts and urgent political issues, such as liberalism, conservatism, radicalism, nationalism, communitarianism, sovereignty, religious liberty, partisanship and factionalism, slavery, segregation, immigration, territorial disputes, voting rights, gendered spheres, and urban/rural tensions.  Chapters on literary genres and forms show how poetry, drama, fiction, oratory, and nonfiction participated in political debate. The volume's introduction situates these chapters in relation to two larger disciplines, the history of political thought and literary history. This Companion provides a valuable resource for students and instructors interested in Nineteenth-Century American literature and politics.

Introduction: politics and literary history John D. Kerkering
Part I. Concepts: 1. The liberal tradition and slavery Arthur Riss
2. Conservatism: tradition, hierarchy, and fictions of social change Edward Whitley
3. The literature of radicalism J. Michelle Coghlan
4. Nationalism: character, identity, and hyphenated selfhood John D. Kerkering
5. Communitarianism and its literary contexts David Faflik
6. Constructing sovereignty through legal and religious discourses Rochelle Zuck
7. Religious reestablishment from pulpit to page Ashley Reed
8. Competing views of partisanship and factionalism Sandra Gustafson
Part II. Issues: 9. Slavery: African American vigilance in slave narratives of the 1820s and 1830s Kelly Ross
10. Disfranchisement, segregation, and the rise of African American literature Kenneth Warren
11. Immigration: 'the Chinese question' in economics, law, and literature Spencer Tricker
12. Territoriality: the possessive logics of American placemaking Kathryn Walkiewicz
13. Voting rights: 'the most salient and peculiar point in our social life' Leslie Petty
14. Defining and defying a woman's sphere Monika Elbert
15. Beyond the custom of the country: rural scarcity and indigenous survivance John Funchion
Part III. Genres: 16. Political poetics: intercrossing discourses and American belonging Shira Woloski
17. Staging debate in American drama: cheeses and politics and pigs Heather Nathans
18. The evolving modalities of fiction and politics Bert Emerson
19. Oratory: persuasion in performance Angela Ray
20. Authors on the campaign trail: 'we are politicians now' John Hay
Chronology of major works and events
Suggestions for further reading
List of contributors
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]