UID:
edocfu_9959233485802883
Format:
1 online resource (312 p.)
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
0-8147-8653-7
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0-8147-4132-0
Series Statement:
America and the long 19th century
Content:
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.
Note:
Description based upon print version of record.
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Frontmatter --
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Contents --
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Acknowledgments --
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Introduction --
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1. Philanthropic Taste --
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2. Character Is Capital --
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3. Muscle Memory --
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4. “A Story Written on Her Face” --
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5. Character’s Conduct --
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Notes --
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Index --
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About the Author
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English
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-8147-4131-2
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-8147-4130-4
Language:
English
DOI:
10.18574/9780814786536
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