eBook

Sentimental Bodies

Bruce Burgett

1998,1999

Overview

Sentimentalism, sex, the construction of the modern body, and the origins of American liberalism all come under scrutiny in this rich discussion of political life in the early republic. Here Bruce Burgett enters into debates over the \"public sphere,\" a concept introduced by Jurgen Habermas that has led theorists to grapple with such polarities as public and private, polity and personality, citizenship and subjection. With the literary public sphere as his primary focus, Burgett sets out to challenge the Enlightenment opposition of reason and sentiment as the fundamental grid for understanding American political culture. Drawing on texts ranging from George Washington's \"Farewell Address\" and Charles Brockden Brown's Clara Howard to Hannah Foster'sThe Coquetteand Harriet Jacobs'sIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Burgett shows that the sentimental literary culture of the period relied on readers' affective, passionate, and embodied responses to fictive characters and situations in order to produce political effects. As such, sentimentalism located readers' bodies both as prepolitical sources of personal authenticity and as public sites of political contestation. Going beyond an account of the public sphere as a realm to which only some have full access, Burgett reveals that the formation of the body and sexual subjectivity is crucial to the very construction of that sphere. By exploring and destabilizing the longstanding distinction between public and private life, this book raises questions central to any democratic political culture.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: 1783-1850 / 1783-1865 / 18th century / 19th century / A Vindication of the Rights of Woman / Alcuin / Allan Bloom / American / American literature / American literature -- 1783-1850 -- History and criticism / Anti-capitalism / Anti-Jacobin / Anti-racism / Antinomy / Antithesis / Body, Human, in literature / Charles Brockden Brown / Charlotte Temple / Citizens (Spanish political party) / Citizenship / Citizenship in literature / Civil disobedience / Civil society / Classical republicanism / Claude Lefort / Communitarianism / Counter-revolutionary / Criticism / Criticism of democracy / Critique / Defamiliarization / Democracy in America / Democratic-Republican Societies / Despotism / Dystopia / Epistemology of the Closet / Externality / Feminism (international relations) / Feminist literary criticism / G. (novel) / Gender identity in literature / Habermas / Hannah Arendt / Hegemony and Socialist Strategy / History / History and criticism / Human body in literature / Ideology / Imperialism / Intellectual life / J. G. A. Pocock / Jacques Derrida / Jay Treaty / Judith Butler / Language & Literature / Leslie Fiedler / Liberal feminism / Liberalism / Libido / LITERARY CRITICISM / LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General / Market Revolution / Mary Wollstonecraft / Master–slave dialectic / Modernity / Moral suasion / Morality / Mrs / Nancy Fraser / Narrative / Nation state / Nationality / Obscenity / On Revolution / Oppression / Political Liberalism / Political philosophy / Political revolution / Politics / Politics and literature / Politics and literature -- United States -- History -- 18th century / Politics and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century / Politique / Popular sovereignty / Pornography / Postmodernism / Power politics / Public morality / Public sphere / Sentimentalism in literature / Sex role in literature / United States / United States -- Intellectual life -- 1783-1865 / United States -- Intellectual life -- 1783-1865.GB9918420
• ISBN: 0691015597, 9780691015590, 9781400822690, 1400822696