Rewriting white : race, class, and cultural capital in nineteenth-century America / Todd Vogel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vogel, Todd, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Minority authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Minority authors.

Literature and society--United States--History--19th century.

Literature and society.

United States.

History.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Minorities--United States--Intellectual life.

Minorities.

Intellectual life.

Social classes in literature.

Ethnic groups in literature.

Minorities in literature.

Ethnicity in literature.

Race in literature.

Physical Description:

x, 194 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Re-writing white

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, [2004]

Summary:

What did it mean for people of color in nineteenth-century America to speak or write "white"? More specifically, how many and what kinds of meaning could such "white" writing carry? In ReWriting White, Todd Vogel looks at how America has racialized language and aesthetic achievement. To make his point, he showcases the surprisingly complex interactions between four nineteenth-century writers of color and the "standard white English" they adapted for their own moral, political, and social ends. The African American, Native American, and Chinese American writers Vogel discusses delivered their messages in a manner that simultaneously demonstrated their command of the dominant discourse of their times -- using styles and addressing forums considered above their station -- and fashioned a subversive meaning in the very act of that demonstration. The close readings and meticulous archival research in ReWriting White upend our conventional expectations, enrich our understanding of the dynamics of hegemony and cultural struggle, and contribute to the efforts of other cutting-edge contemporary scholars to chip away at the walls of racial segregation that have for too long defined and defaced the landscape of American literary and cultural studies.

Contents:

Recasting the plot

Speaking to the whiteness of the brain

William Apess's theater and a "Native" American history

Sharpening the pen : racial and aesthetic transformation

Anna Julia Cooper and the Black orator

Edith Eaton plays the Chinese water lily.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-185) and index.

ISBN:

0813534313

0813534321

OCLC:

53223541