Bodies of Reform : : The Rhetoric of Character in Gilded Age America / / James B. Salazar.
From the patricians of the early republic to post-Reconstruction racial scientists, from fin de siècle progressivist social reformers to post-war sociologists, character, that curiously formable yet equally formidable “stuff,” has had a long and checkered history giving shape to the American nationa...
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Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013 |
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VerfasserIn: | |
Place / Publishing House: | New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2010] ©2010 |
Year of Publication: | 2010 |
Language: | English |
Series: | America and the Long 19th Century ;
14 |
Online Access: | |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource |
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Other title: | Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Philanthropic Taste -- 2. Character Is Capital -- 3. Muscle Memory -- 4. “A Story Written on Her Face” -- 5. Character’s Conduct -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author |
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Summary: | From the patricians of the early republic to post-Reconstruction racial scientists, from fin de siècle progressivist social reformers to post-war sociologists, character, that curiously formable yet equally formidable “stuff,” has had a long and checkered history giving shape to the American national identity.Bodies of Reform reconceives this pivotal category of nineteenth-century literature and culture by charting the development of the concept of “character” in the fictional genres, social reform movements, and political cultures of the United States from the mid-nineteenth to the early-twentieth century. By reading novelists such as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Pauline Hopkins, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman alongside a diverse collection of texts concerned with the mission of building character, including child-rearing guides, muscle-building magazines, libel and naturalization law, Scout handbooks, and success manuals, James B. Salazar uncovers how the cultural practices of representing character operated in tandem with the character-building strategies of social reformers. His innovative reading of this archive offers a radical revision of this defining category in U.S. literature and culture, arguing that character was the keystone of a cultural politics of embodiment, a politics that played a critical role in determining-and contesting-the social mobility, political authority, and cultural meaning of the raced and gendered body. |
Format: | Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. |
ISBN: | 9780814786536 9783110706444 |
DOI: | 10.18574/nyu/9780814741306.001.0001 |
Access: | restricted access |
Hierarchical level: | Monograph |
Statement of Responsibility: | James B. Salazar. |