Negotiating motherhood in nineteenth-century American literature / Mary McCartin Wearn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wearn, Mary McCartin.

Series:

American popular history and culture (Routledge (Firm))

Studies in American popular history and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

Motherhood in literature.

Mothers in literature.

Women and literature--United States--History--19th century.

Women and literature.

United States.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 167 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, [2008]

Summary:

Returning to a foundational moment in the history of the American family, Negotiating Motherhood in Nineteenth-Century American Literature explores how various authors of the period represented the maternal rolean office that came to a new, social prominence at the end of the eighteenth century. By examining maternal figures in the works of diverse authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Sarah Piatt, this book exposes the contentious but fruitful negotiations that took place in the heart of the American sentimental eranegotiations about the cultural meanings of family, womanhood, and motherhood. This book, then, challenges critical constructions that figure American sentimentalism as a coherent, monolithic project, tied strictly to the forces of cultural conservatism.

Contents:

"Stronger than all was maternal love": maternal idealism in Uncle Tom's cabin

No more "the pillow of affection": deconstructing the "softening influence" of motherhood in The Scarlet Letter

"Links... of gold": the bonds of motherhood in Incidents in the life of a slave girl

"She has been burning palaces": the maternal poetics of Sarah Piatt.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 149-157) and index.

ISBN:

0415981042

9780415981040

OCLC:

85692872

Online:

Publisher description