Democratic Discourses: The Radical Abolition Movement and Antebellum American Literature

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Rutgers University Press, 2005 - 223 páginas
"An arresting book that juxtaposes major and minor antebellum texts to develop its own democratic discourse. Michael Bennett writes with verve and brio, and offers some juicy surprises."--David Leverenz, University of Florida

Ever since the hallowed statement, "All men are created equal," was penned in the Declaration of Independence, it has become a historical tenet that freedom and equality were brought to American shores by the so-called Founding Fathers.

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.

 

Páginas seleccionadas

Contenido

Visiting the National AntiSlavery Bazaar
18
Notes
161
Works Cited
179
Index
199
Derechos de autor

Términos y frases comunes

abolition movement abolitionism abolitionist movement African American allegory American Anti-Slavery Society antebellum antebellum United anti argues black female body black women Bondage Boston challenge chapter characters claim conventions counterpublic critics critique cult of true democratic aesthetic democratic discourses Douglass and Thoreau efforts enslavement equality experience feminism feminist abolitionists Frances Ellen Watkins Frederick Douglass Fugitive Slave Law Garrisonian gender democracy genre Harriet Beecher Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Jacobs human Incidents Jacobs Jacobs's labor liberty Linda literary literature Margaret Fuller Mason-Dixon Line Massachusetts National Anti-Slavery Bazaar Nineteenth Century North oppression poem poetry political public sphere race racial racism radical abolition radical abolitionists readers resist rhetoric role Slave Mother slave narratives slavery social Sojourner Truth speeches Stowe Stowe's struggle symbol sympathy tion transformed true womanhood U.S. culture Uncle Tom's Cabin understanding voice Walden Watkins and Whitman Watkins's William Lloyd Garrison woman woman's rights woman's sphere York

Acerca del autor (2005)

Michael Bennett, an associate professor of English at Long Island University, is the co-editor of Recovering the Black Female Body: Self-Representations by African American Women and The Nature of Cities: Ecocriticism and Urban Environments.

Información bibliográfica

TítuloDemocratic Discourses: The Radical Abolition Movement and Antebellum American Literature
Democratic Discourses: The Radical Abolition Movement and Antebellum American Literature, Michael Bennett
AutorMichael Bennett
EditorRutgers University Press, 2005
ISBN0813535735, 9780813535739
Largo223 páginas
  
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