Disability, the Body, and Radical Intellectuals in the Literature of - the Civil War and Reconstructio

"The book is a study of the ways that white radicals deployed the physical and literary image of amputation during the Civil War and Reconstruction to argue for full Black citizenship and against a national reconciliation that reimposed white supremacy. It gives readers a new way to think about the Civil War and Reconstruction"--

List of contents

Introduction: a new kind of nation: Amputation, reconstruction, and the promise of black citizenship; 1. Giving up the ghost: the dead child vs. the amputated limb; 2. 'Strewn promiscuously about': limbs and what happens to them; 3. 1860 or 1865? Amending the national body; 4. 'I don't care a rag for the Union as it was': amputation, the past, and the work of the Freedmen's Bureau; 5. Shaking hands: manual politics and the end of reconstruction; Conclusion: Eloquent Emptiness.

About the author

Sarah E. Chinn is Professor of English at Hunter College, CUNY. She is the author of three other books: Technology and the Logic of American Racism: A Cultural History of the Body as Evidence (2000), The Invention of Modern Adolescence: The Children of Immigrants in Turn-of-the-Century America (2007), and Spectacular Men: Race, Gender, and Nation on the Early American Stage (2017), which won the 2017 George Freedley Memorial Award for an exemplary work in the field of live theatre or performance from the American Theatre Library Association.

Summary

The book is a study of the ways that white radicals deployed the physical and literary image of amputation during the Civil War and Reconstruction to argue for full Black citizenship and against a national reconciliation that reimposed white supremacy. It gives readers a new way to think about the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Product details

• Authors: Sarah E Chinn, Sarah E. (Hunter College Chinn, Chinn Sarah E.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.2024
• EAN: 9781009442695
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0944269-5
• No. of pages: 270
• Series: Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Minority Studies, LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, c 1800 to c 1900, Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions, Social and cultural history, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, Literary theory, Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Biracial & Multiracial Studies, HISTORY / Revolutions, Uprisings & Rebellions