1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910450783303321

Autore

Edwards Justin D. <1970->

Titolo

Gothic passages [[electronic resource] ] : racial ambiguity and the American gothic / / Justin D. Edwards

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Iowa City, : University of Iowa Press, c2003

ISBN

1-58729-420-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (181 p.)

Disciplina

813.0872909355

813/.0872909355

Soggetti

Horror tales, American - History and criticism

American fiction - 19th century - History and criticism

Gothic revival (Literature) - United States

Racially mixed people in literature

Passing (Identity) in literature

Ambiguity in literature

Race in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [123]-139) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part One: Creating A Self in the Antebellum Gothic Narrative; 1. Hybrid Bodies and Gothic Narratives in Poe's Pym; 2. Gothic Travels in Melville's Benito Cereno; 3. Passing and Abjection in William and Ellen Craft's Runninga Thousand Miles for Freedom; PART TWO Exploring Identity in Postbellum Gothic Discourse; 4. The Epistemology of the Body;  or, Gothic Secrets inFrances E. W. Harper's Iola Leroy; 5. Genetic Atavism and the Return of the Repressed inWilliam Dean Howells's An Imperative Duty

6. The Haunted House behind the Cedars: CharlesW. Chesnuttand the "White Negro"Epilogue: Twentieth-Century Gothicism andRacial Ambiguity; Notes; Works Cited; Index

Sommario/riassunto

This groundbreaking study analyzes the development of American gothic  literature alongside nineteenth-century discourses of passing and  racial ambiguity.By bringing together these areas of analysis,



Justin Edwards  considers the following questions. How are the categories of "race" and  the rhetoric of racial difference tied to the language of gothicism?  What can these discursive ties tell us about a range of social  boundaries-gender, sexuality, class, race, etc.-during the nineteenth  century? What can the construction and destabilization of these social  boundaries tell us