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Chapter 2. Race and affect in Gustave de Beaumont’s Marie, ou L’esclavage aux Etats‑Unis

  • Madeleine Dobie
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A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery
This chapter is in the book A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery

Abstract

Gustave de Beaumont’s novel Marie, ou l’esclavage (1835), a companion piece to Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy In America (1835, 1840) (Beaumont accompanied Tocqueville on his travels through the United States), belongs to a small group of early nineteenth-century francophone fictions in which the question of slavery is deflected onto the examination of race. Romantic psychology and epistemology shape Beaumont’s exploration of race as a site of emotional intensity that has no fixed referent. This treatment of race as an emotional forcefield rather than as the cause of an emotional effect, anticipates the work of theorists of affect and social emotionality such as Sara Ahmed. While Beaumont strives to demystify race, thereby exposing the absurdity of racial prejudice, by centering whiteness as an aesthetic value and metaphor for purity, the novel in the end illustrates its tenacious hold.

Abstract

Gustave de Beaumont’s novel Marie, ou l’esclavage (1835), a companion piece to Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy In America (1835, 1840) (Beaumont accompanied Tocqueville on his travels through the United States), belongs to a small group of early nineteenth-century francophone fictions in which the question of slavery is deflected onto the examination of race. Romantic psychology and epistemology shape Beaumont’s exploration of race as a site of emotional intensity that has no fixed referent. This treatment of race as an emotional forcefield rather than as the cause of an emotional effect, anticipates the work of theorists of affect and social emotionality such as Sara Ahmed. While Beaumont strives to demystify race, thereby exposing the absurdity of racial prejudice, by centering whiteness as an aesthetic value and metaphor for purity, the novel in the end illustrates its tenacious hold.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. General introduction xi
  5. Slavery, literature and the emotions 1
  6. Part One. Slavery, sentiment and affect
  7. Chapter 1. Slavery, sentimentality and the abolition of affect 18
  8. Chapter 2. Race and affect in Gustave de Beaumont’s Marie, ou L’esclavage aux Etats‑Unis 34
  9. Chapter 3. Touching difference and colonial space 50
  10. Part Two. Slavery between literary codes
  11. Chapter 4. In search of home 78
  12. Chapter 5. Showing and feeling the atrocities of slavery 95
  13. Chapter 6. Politics and faith, slavery and abolition in nineteenth-century Brazilian literature 110
  14. Chapter 7. Melodramatic tableaux vivants 136
  15. Part Three. Pity, identification and interpellation
  16. Chapter 8. Before sentimental empire 158
  17. Chapter 9. “No one can imagine my feelings” 173
  18. Chapter 10. Orientalism, slavery and emotion 191
  19. Chapter 11. Haunting slavery 207
  20. Part Four. Affective ties
  21. Chapter 12. Testamentary manumission and emotional bonds in eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue 226
  22. Chapter 13. Affection amidst domination in a post-slavery society 239
  23. Chapter 14. Bárbora and Jau 254
  24. Part Five. First-person voices
  25. Chapter 15. Scenes of emotion in French early-modern travel writing from the Caribbean 272
  26. Chapter 16. Fear and love in Matanzas 289
  27. Chapter 17. The blood-stained-gate 307
  28. Volume 1. Biographical descriptions 325
  29. Name index 331
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.xxxvi.02dob

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. General introduction xi
  5. Slavery, literature and the emotions 1
  6. Part One. Slavery, sentiment and affect
  7. Chapter 1. Slavery, sentimentality and the abolition of affect 18
  8. Chapter 2. Race and affect in Gustave de Beaumont’s Marie, ou L’esclavage aux Etats‑Unis 34
  9. Chapter 3. Touching difference and colonial space 50
  10. Part Two. Slavery between literary codes
  11. Chapter 4. In search of home 78
  12. Chapter 5. Showing and feeling the atrocities of slavery 95
  13. Chapter 6. Politics and faith, slavery and abolition in nineteenth-century Brazilian literature 110
  14. Chapter 7. Melodramatic tableaux vivants 136
  15. Part Three. Pity, identification and interpellation
  16. Chapter 8. Before sentimental empire 158
  17. Chapter 9. “No one can imagine my feelings” 173
  18. Chapter 10. Orientalism, slavery and emotion 191
  19. Chapter 11. Haunting slavery 207
  20. Part Four. Affective ties
  21. Chapter 12. Testamentary manumission and emotional bonds in eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue 226
  22. Chapter 13. Affection amidst domination in a post-slavery society 239
  23. Chapter 14. Bárbora and Jau 254
  24. Part Five. First-person voices
  25. Chapter 15. Scenes of emotion in French early-modern travel writing from the Caribbean 272
  26. Chapter 16. Fear and love in Matanzas 289
  27. Chapter 17. The blood-stained-gate 307
  28. Volume 1. Biographical descriptions 325
  29. Name index 331
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