| Novel Bondage: Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America Contributor(s): Chakkalakal, Tess (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252079043 ISBN-13: 9780252079047 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $26.73 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2013 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - African American - Social Science | Sociology - Marriage & Family - History | United States - 19th Century |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6" W x 8.9" (0.55 lbs) 160 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Novel Bondage unravels the interconnections between marriage, slavery, and freedom through renewed readings of canonical nineteenth-century novels and short stories by black and white authors. Situating close readings of fiction alongside archival material concerning the actual marriages of authors such as Lydia Maria Child, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Wells Brown, and Frank J. Webb, Chakkalakal examines how these early novels established literary conventions for describing the domestic lives of American slaves in describing their aspirations for personal and civic freedom. Exploring this theme in post-Civil War works by Frances E.W. Harper and Charles Chesnutt, she further reveals how the slave-marriage plot served as a fictional model for reforming marriage laws. Chakkalakal invites readers to rethink the "marital work" of nineteenth-century fiction and the historical role it played in shaping our understanding of the literary and political meaning of marriage, then and now. |