The war on words : slavery, race, and free speech in American literature / Michael T. Gilmore.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilmore, Michael T.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Slavery in literature.

Race in literature.

Literary style--Social aspects--United States.

Literary style.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (342 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How did slavery and race impact American literature in the nineteenth century? In this ambitious book, Michael T. Gilmore argues that they were the carriers of linguistic restriction, and writers from Frederick Douglass to Stephen Crane wrestled with the demands for silence and circumspection that accompanied the antebellum fear of disunion and the postwar reconciliation between the North and South. Proposing a radical new interpretation of nineteenth-century American literature, The War on Words examines struggles over permissible and impermissible utterance in works ranging from Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" to Henry James's The Bostonians. Combining historical knowledge with groundbreaking readings of some of the classic texts of the American past, The War on Words places Lincoln's Cooper Union address in the same constellation as Margaret Fuller's feminism and Thomas Dixon's defense of lynching. Arguing that slavery and race exerted coercive pressure on freedom of expression, Gilmore offers here a transformative study that alters our understanding of nineteenth-century literary culture and its fraught engagement with the right to speak.

Contents:

Front matter

Content

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech

Part II: Antebellum

Part III: Antebellum/Postbellum

Intertext: "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

Part IV: Postbellum

Timeline

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612710704

9781282710702

1282710702

9780226294155

0226294153

OCLC:

657077420