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Chapter 11. Haunting slavery

The Traumatic Gaze in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and A Romance of the Republic
  • Lori Robison
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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

This chapter considers the disruptive power of two nineteenth-century literary scenes, one from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and one from Lydia Maria Child’s A Romance of the Republic (1867), in which portrayals of enslaved women activate the emotions of readers while challenging the usual workings of sympathy. Drawing on the work of film theorist Todd McGowan, it locates in these scenes a Lacanian gaze that unsettles readers by looking back at them, creating an opportunity for them to see ideology as ideology. Through this approach, the chapter identifies a textual strategy that challenges slavery and racism while pushing back against the racial objectifications inherent in the dynamics of sympathy: a strategy that could ultimately intervene in the cultural construction of whiteness and blackness.

Abstract

This chapter considers the disruptive power of two nineteenth-century literary scenes, one from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and one from Lydia Maria Child’s A Romance of the Republic (1867), in which portrayals of enslaved women activate the emotions of readers while challenging the usual workings of sympathy. Drawing on the work of film theorist Todd McGowan, it locates in these scenes a Lacanian gaze that unsettles readers by looking back at them, creating an opportunity for them to see ideology as ideology. Through this approach, the chapter identifies a textual strategy that challenges slavery and racism while pushing back against the racial objectifications inherent in the dynamics of sympathy: a strategy that could ultimately intervene in the cultural construction of whiteness and blackness.

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.11rob

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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