Family, kinship, and sympathy in nineteenth-century American literature / Cindy Weinstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weinstein, Cindy.

Series:

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 147.

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 147

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American fiction.

Domestic fiction, American--History and criticism.

Domestic fiction, American.

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

Literature and society.

United States.

History.

Sympathy in literature.

Kinship in literature.

Families in literature.

Physical Description:

x, 243 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Summary:

In Family, Kinship, and Sympathy in Nineteenth-Century American Literature Cindy Weinstein radically revises our understanding of nineteenth-century sentimental literature in the United States. She argues that these novels are far more complex than critics have suggested, expanding the canon of sentimental novels to include some of the more popular, though under-examined, writers, such as Mary Jane Holmes, Caroline Lee Hentz, and Mary Hayden Green Pike. Rather than confirming the power of the bourgeois family, Weinstein argues, sentimental fictions used the destruction of the biological family as an opportunity to reconfigure the family in terms of love rather than consanguinity. Their texts intervened in debates about slavery, domestic reform, and other social issues of the time. Furthermore, Weinstein shows how canonical texts, such as Melville's Pierre and works by Stowe and Twain, can take on new meaning when read in the context of nineteenth-century sentimental fictions. Through intensive close readings of a wide range of novels, this groundbreaking study demonstrates the aesthetic and political complexities of this important and influential genre.

Contents:

1 In loco parentis 16

2 "A sort of adopted daughter": family relations in The Lamplighter 45

3 Thinking through sympathy: Kemble, Hentz, and Stowe 66

4 Behind the scenes of sentimental novels: Ida May and Twelve Years a Slave 95

5 Love American style: The Wide, Wide World 130

6 We are family, or Melville's Pierre 159.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 228-236) and index.

ISBN:

0521842530

OCLC:

54974516

Online:

Publisher description