Family, kinship, and sympathy in nineteenth-century American literature

Summary: In Family, Kinship, and Sympathy in Nineteenth-Century American Literature Cindy Weinstein radically revises our understanding of nineteenth-century sentimental literature in the United States. She argues that these novels are far more complex than critics have suggested. Rather than confirming the power of the bourgeois family, Weinstein argues, sentimental fiction used the destruction of the biological family as an opportunity to reconfigure the family in terms of love rather than consanguinity. Their texts intervened in debates about slavery, domestic reform and other social issues of the time. Weinstein shows how canonical texts, such as Melville's Pierre and works by Stowe and Twain, can take on new meaning when read in the context of nineteenth-century sentimental fiction. Through intensive close readings of a wide range of novels, this groundbreaking study demonstrates the aesthetic and political complexities in this important and influential genre.

Record details

ISBN: 0521842530
ISBN: 0521031265
ISBN: 9780521842532
ISBN: 9780511265679
ISBN: 9780511264955
ISBN: 9780511263385
ISBN: 0521842530
ISBN: 0511265670
ISBN: 051126495X
ISBN: 0511263384
Physical Description: 1 online resource (x, 243 pages).
remote
Computer data.
Publisher: Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Content descriptions

General Note:	CatMonthString:august.19 Multi-User.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 228-236) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	In loco parentis -- "A sort of adopted daughter": family relations in The lamplighter -- Thinking through sympathy: Kemble, Hentz, and Stowe -- Behind the scenes of sentimental novels: Ida Mae and Twelve years a slave -- Love American style: The wide, wide world -- We are family, or Melville's Pierre.
Type of Computer File or Data Note:	Text (HTML), electronic book.
System Details Note:	Mode of access: Internet.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note:	Access requires VIU IP addresses and is restricted to VIU students, faculty and staff. Access restricted by subscription.
Issuing Body Note:	Made available online by EBSCO.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.