Transformable race : surprising metamorphoses in the literature of early America / Katy L. Chiles.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chiles, Katy L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--18th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Race in literature.

Race awareness in literature.

Race relations in literature.

Human skin color in literature.

Black people--Race identity--United States--History--18th century.

Black people.

Indians of North America--Ethnic identity--History--18th century.

Indians of North America.

White people--Race identity--United States--History--18th century.

White people.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (330 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Racial thought at the close of the 18th century differed radically from that of the 19th century, when the concept of race as a fixed biological category would emerge. Instead, many early Americans thought that race was an exterior bodily trait, incrementally produced by environmental factors, and continuously subject to change. While historians have documented aspects of 18th century racial thought, this is the first book to identify how this thinking informs the figurative language in the literature of this crucial period.

Contents:

Introduction: surprising metamorphoses

Becoming colored in Occom and Wheatley's early America

To make Samson Occom "so"

"To make a poet black"

The political bodies of Benjamin Franklin and Hendrick Aupaumut

You are what you eat; or, Franklin's practice makes (almost) perfect

Hendrick Aupaumut's own color

Transforming into natives: Crèvecoeur, Marrant, and Brown on becoming Indian

Passing as, transforming into Crèvecoeur's American race

John Marrant becoming Cherokee

Edgar Huntly's unsettling transformation

Doubting transformable race:

Equiano, Brackenridge, and the textuality of natural history

To quote and to question: Olaudah Equiano's provocative ends

Brackenridge and the limits of writing natural history

Epilogue: interiorizing racial metamorphosis:

The Algerine captive's language of sympathy.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-931351-2

0-19-931350-4

OCLC:

870284585