Book

Provocative eloquence : theater, violence, and antislavery speech in the antebellum United States

Mielke, Laura L., author

Overview

\"In the mid-19th century, rhetoric surrounding slavery was permeated by violence. Slavery's defenders often used brute force to suppress opponents, and even those abolitionists dedicated to pacifism drew upon visions of widespread destruction. Provocative Eloquence recounts how the theater, long an arena for heightened eloquence and physical contest, proved terribly relevant in the lead up to the Civil War. As antislavery speech and open conflict intertwined, the nation became a stage. The book brings together notions of intertextuality and interperformativity to understand how the confluence of oratorical and theatrical practices in the antebellum period reflected the conflict over slavery and deeply influenced the language that barely contained that conflict. The book draws on a wide range of work in performance studies, theater history, black performance theory, oratorical studies, and literature and law to provide a new narrative of the interaction of oratorical, theatrical, and literary histories of the nineteenth-century U.S.\"-- Provided by publisher.

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Subject: Theater United States History 19th century. / Theater and society United States History 19th century. / Antislavery movements United States History 19th century. / Violence in literature.
• ISBN: 9780472131051

Item info:

1 item available

1 item total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
PN2248.M54 2019	1	BOOK	GENERAL