Description |
1 online resource (x, 223 pages) |
Contents |
Machine generated contents note: 1. Democratic discourses : visiting the national anti-slavery bazaar -- 2. Bodily democracy : Frances Ellen Watkins and Walt Whitman sing the body electric -- 3. Gender democracy : Margaret Fuller and Sojourner Truth argue the case of Woman versus women -- 4. Economic democracy : Frederick Douglass and Henry David Thoreau negotiate the Mason-Dixon Line |
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 |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-198) and index |
Notes |
English |
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Print version record |
Subject |
American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
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Slavery in literature.
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American literature -- African American authors -- History and criticism
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Politics and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century
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Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 19th century
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Radicalism -- United States -- History -- 19th century
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African Americans -- Intellectual life -- 19th century
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Abolitionists -- United States -- Intellectual life
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Antislavery movements in literature.
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African Americans in literature.
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Radicalism in literature.
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General.
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African Americans in literature
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African Americans -- Intellectual life
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American literature
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American literature -- African American authors
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Antislavery movements in literature
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Literature and society
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Politics and literature
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Radicalism
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Radicalism in literature
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Slavery in literature
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United States
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Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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History
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Form |
Electronic book
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ISBN |
0813537533 |
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9780813537535 |
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9780813535722 |
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0813535727 |
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9780813535739 |
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0813535735 |
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1280360860 |
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9781280360862 |
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9786610360864 |
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6610360863 |
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