Democratic discourses : the radical abolition movement and antebellum American literature / Michael Bennett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bennett, Michael, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

Slavery in literature.

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

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

Politics and literature.

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

Literature and society.

Radicalism--United States--History--19th century.

Radicalism.

African Americans--Intellectual life--19th century.

African Americans.

Abolitionists--United States--Intellectual life.

Abolitionists.

Antislavery movements in literature.

African Americans in literature.

Radicalism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (237 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this path-breaking study, Michael Bennett departs from tradition to argue that the democratic ideal of equality and the actual ways in which it has been practiced are grounded less in the fledgling government documents written by a handful of white men than in the actions and writings of the radical abolitionists of the nineteenth century. Bringing together key texts of both African American and European American authors, Democratic Discourses shows the important ways that abolitionist writing shaped a powerful counterculture within a slave-holding society. Bennett offers fresh new analysis through unusual pairings of authors, including Frederick Douglass with Henry David Thoreau, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper with Walt Whitman, and Margaret Fuller with Sojourner Truth. These rereadings avoid the tendency to view antebellum writing as a product primarily of either European American or African American influences and, instead, illustrate the interconnections of white and black literature in the creation and practice of democracy. Drawing on discourses about race, the body, gender, economics, and aesthetics, this unique study encourages readers to reconsider the reality and roots of freedoms experienced in the United States today.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1:Democratic Discourses: Visiting the National Anti-Slavery Bazaar

Chapter 2: Bodily Democracy: Frances Ellen Watkins and Walt Whitman Sing the Body Electric

Chapter 3: Gender Democracy: Margaret Fuller and Sojourner Truth Argue the Case of Woman versus Women

Chapter 4: Economic Democracy: Frederick Douglass and Henry David Thoreau Negotiate the Mason-Dixon Line

Chapter 5: Aesthetic Democracy: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Harriet Jacobs Represent the End(s) of Slavery

Conclusion

Notes

Works Cited

Index

About the Author.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-198) and index.

ISBN:

1-280-36086-0

9786610360864

0-8135-3753-3

OCLC:

62215665