LEADER 04499nam 2200793 a 450 001 9910792593703321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-282-58469-3 010 $a9786612584695 010 $a0-226-24111-4 024 7 $a10.7208/9780226241111 035 $a(CKB)2670000000019435 035 $a(EBL)534574 035 $a(OCoLC)635292207 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000418262 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11297940 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000418262 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10369556 035 $a(PQKB)11442492 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000117457 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC534574 035 $a(DE-B1597)524538 035 $a(OCoLC)1135590469 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780226241111 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL534574 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10389570 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL258469 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000019435 100 $a20030722d2004 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe fugitive's properties$b[electronic resource] $elaw and the poetics of possession /$fStephen M. Best 210 $aChicago $cUniversity of Chicago Press$dc2004 215 $a1 online resource (375 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-226-04433-5 311 $a0-226-04434-3 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 277-351) and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $tList of Illustrations -- $tDebts -- $tIntroduction: The Slave's Two Bodies -- $tPro Bono Publico: Chapter Two. The Fugitive's Properties: Uncle Tom's Incalculable Dividend -- $tSine Qua Non: Chapter Three. Counterfactuals, Causation, and the Tenses of "Separate but Equal" -- $tConclusion: The Rules of the Game -- $tNotes -- $tIndex 330 $aIn this study of literature and law before and since the Civil War, Stephen M. Best shows how American conceptions of slavery, property, and the idea of the fugitive were profoundly interconnected. The Fugitive's Properties uncovers a poetics of intangible, personified property emerging out of antebellum laws, circulating through key nineteenth-century works of literature, and informing cultural forms such as blackface minstrelsy and early race films. Best also argues that legal principles dealing with fugitives and indebted persons provided a sophisticated precursor to intellectual property law as it dealt with rights in appearance, expression, and other abstract aspects of personhood. In this conception of property as fleeting, indeed fugitive, American law preserved for much of the rest of the century slavery's most pressing legal imperative: the production of personhood as a market commodity. By revealing the paradoxes of this relationship between fugitive slave law and intellectual property law, Best helps us to understand how race achieved much of its force in the American cultural imagination. A work of ambitious scope and compelling cross-connections, The Fugitive's Properties sets new agendas for scholars of American literature and legal culture. 606 $aAmerican literature$y19th century$xHistory and criticism 606 $aSlavery in literature 606 $aFugitive slaves$xLegal status, laws, etc$zUnited States 606 $aLaw and literature$xHistory$y19th century 606 $aAfrican Americans in literature 606 $aFugitive slaves in literature 606 $aProperty in literature 606 $aRace in literature 610 $aliterature, law, slavery, fugitive, property, antebellum, blackface, minstrelsy, race films, appearance, expression, personhood, commodity, commodification, patents, uncle toms cabin, harriet beecher stowe, theft, gift, copyright, nonfiction, possession, chattel, labor, power, agency, wealth, economics, gender, masculinity, femininity. 615 0$aAmerican literature$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aSlavery in literature. 615 0$aFugitive slaves$xLegal status, laws, etc. 615 0$aLaw and literature$xHistory 615 0$aAfrican Americans in literature. 615 0$aFugitive slaves in literature. 615 0$aProperty in literature. 615 0$aRace in literature. 676 $a810.9/3552 700 $aBest$b Stephen Michael$01500181 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910792593703321 996 $aThe fugitive's properties$93726750 997 $aUNINA