Twentieth-Century Sentimentalism Narrative Appropriation in American Literature |
|
| Author:
| Williamson, Jennifer A. |
| Series title: | The American Literatures Initiative Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-8135-6298-8 |
| Publication Date: | Dec 2013 |
| Publisher: | Rutgers University Press
|
| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | AUD $174.00 |
Book Description:
|
This book argues that sentimentalism, an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary mode, is alive and well in the modern era. By examining working-class literature that adopts the rhetoric of "feeling right" in order to promote a proletarian or humanist ideology as well as neo-slave narratives that wrestle with the legacy of slavery and cultural definitions of African American families, it explores the ways contemporary authors engage with familiar sentimental clichés...
More Description
This book argues that sentimentalism, an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary mode, is alive and well in the modern era. By examining working-class literature that adopts the rhetoric of "feeling right" in order to promote a proletarian or humanist ideology as well as neo-slave narratives that wrestle with the legacy of slavery and cultural definitions of African American families, it explores the ways contemporary authors engage with familiar sentimental clichés and ideals.