Politics of Anxiety in Nineteenth-Century American Literature

Murison explains the impact of neurological medicine on nineteenth-century literature and culture, particularly Hawthorne and Beecher Stowe.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. A bond-slave to the mind: sympathy and hypochondria in Robert Montgomery Bird's Sheppard Lee; 2. Frogs, dogs, and mobs: reflex and democracy in Edgar Allan Poe's satires; 3. Invasions of privacy: clairvoyance and Utopian failure in Antebellum romance; 4. 'All that is enthusiastic': revival and reform in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Dred; 5. Cui bono?: Spiritualism and empiricism from the Civil War to American nervousness; Epilogue: the confidences of anxiety.

About the author

Justine Murison is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Summary

New scientific discoveries about the nerves inspired writers like Hawthorne and Beecher Stowe to re-imagine the role of the self amidst political, social and religious tumults, including debates about slavery and the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. Murison explains the impact of neurological medicine on nineteenth-century literature and culture.

Product details

• Authors: Justine S. Murison, Justine S. (University of Illinois Murison, Murison Justine S.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.12.2013
• EAN: 9781107694149
• ISBN: 978-1-107-69414-9
• No. of pages: 230
• Series: Cambridge Studies in American; Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; English, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: general, Literary theory