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20 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and the Politics of Sentimentalism

  • David Komline
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Handbook of American Romanticism
This chapter is in the book Handbook of American Romanticism

Abstract

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852 at the height of the American Renaissance, achieved global fame in its era. As an exemplary piece of parlor literature, the book uses realism and sentimentalism in its effort to convince its audience of the evils of slavery. Along the way it repeatedly returns to themes such as money and capitalism, law, family, and Christianity. But even if Uncle Tom’s Cabin did help to end slavery, today its utility is less obvious. Scholars have rightly criticized the “romantic racialism” that permeates its treatment of African Americans. Others debate the merits of the book’s sentimentalism, with some dismissing it as bad literature and others championing it as representing the interests of popular audiences, especially of women. A progressive by the measures of her own historical context, Stowe herself thought she was championing African Americans and women, two of the more marginalized groups in the canonical study of American literature.

Abstract

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852 at the height of the American Renaissance, achieved global fame in its era. As an exemplary piece of parlor literature, the book uses realism and sentimentalism in its effort to convince its audience of the evils of slavery. Along the way it repeatedly returns to themes such as money and capitalism, law, family, and Christianity. But even if Uncle Tom’s Cabin did help to end slavery, today its utility is less obvious. Scholars have rightly criticized the “romantic racialism” that permeates its treatment of African Americans. Others debate the merits of the book’s sentimentalism, with some dismissing it as bad literature and others championing it as representing the interests of popular audiences, especially of women. A progressive by the measures of her own historical context, Stowe herself thought she was championing African Americans and women, two of the more marginalized groups in the canonical study of American literature.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. The Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0 Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Definitions, Backgrounds, Contexts
  6. 1 Antebellum Period and Romanticism: Definitions and Demarcations 9
  7. 2 Antebellum Literary Culture: The Institutions of Romanticism 33
  8. 3 Transnational Dimensions of Romanticism 55
  9. 4 American Romanticism and Religion 81
  10. 5 Romanticism and European Philosophy, or “Idealism As It Appears in 1842” 119
  11. Part II: Intellectual, Spiritual, and Political Debates
  12. 6 Romanticism and Democracy 143
  13. 7 Romanticism and Social Reform 163
  14. 8 American Romanticism and Esotericism 185
  15. 9 America as Interior Space: Artificial Landscapes and the Modernization of Literature in Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Fiction 207
  16. Part III: Contestations of Authorship and Genre
  17. 10 Authorship as Profession and the Uses of Genre in Antebellum America 229
  18. 11 Poet-Prophets and Seers: American Romanticism, Authorship, and Literary Institutions 249
  19. 12 Life Writing and Romantic Expressivism 269
  20. 13 The Fireside and Sentimental Poets 293
  21. Part IV: Close Readings
  22. 14 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature (1836): American Romantic “Manifesto” 313
  23. 15 Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845): Romanticism and (Proto)Feminism 335
  24. 16 The Continuous Creation of Walden 355
  25. 17 Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) 375
  26. 18 Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) and the Historical Imagination in American Romanticism 389
  27. 19 Romanticism and History: Göttingen and George Bancroft’s History of the United States (1834) 415
  28. 20 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and the Politics of Sentimentalism 435
  29. 21 Myth and Mythmaking in the Douglass Circle 453
  30. 22 “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”: Emily Dickinson’s Poetry and the Creation of the Self 477
  31. 23 The Great Psalm of the Republic: Walt Whitman’s Democratic Poetics 495
  32. Part V: Reception Histories
  33. 24 Transcendentalist Legacies in American Philosophy 517
  34. 25 Rethinking Gender in Antebellum American Literature 537
  35. 26 “In the Woods We Return to Reason and Faith”: American Romanticism, Environmentalism, and Seeker Spirituality 561
  36. Index of Names 579
  37. Index of Subjects 589
  38. List of Contributors 599
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110592238-021

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. The Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0 Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Definitions, Backgrounds, Contexts
  6. 1 Antebellum Period and Romanticism: Definitions and Demarcations 9
  7. 2 Antebellum Literary Culture: The Institutions of Romanticism 33
  8. 3 Transnational Dimensions of Romanticism 55
  9. 4 American Romanticism and Religion 81
  10. 5 Romanticism and European Philosophy, or “Idealism As It Appears in 1842” 119
  11. Part II: Intellectual, Spiritual, and Political Debates
  12. 6 Romanticism and Democracy 143
  13. 7 Romanticism and Social Reform 163
  14. 8 American Romanticism and Esotericism 185
  15. 9 America as Interior Space: Artificial Landscapes and the Modernization of Literature in Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Fiction 207
  16. Part III: Contestations of Authorship and Genre
  17. 10 Authorship as Profession and the Uses of Genre in Antebellum America 229
  18. 11 Poet-Prophets and Seers: American Romanticism, Authorship, and Literary Institutions 249
  19. 12 Life Writing and Romantic Expressivism 269
  20. 13 The Fireside and Sentimental Poets 293
  21. Part IV: Close Readings
  22. 14 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature (1836): American Romantic “Manifesto” 313
  23. 15 Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845): Romanticism and (Proto)Feminism 335
  24. 16 The Continuous Creation of Walden 355
  25. 17 Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) 375
  26. 18 Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) and the Historical Imagination in American Romanticism 389
  27. 19 Romanticism and History: Göttingen and George Bancroft’s History of the United States (1834) 415
  28. 20 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and the Politics of Sentimentalism 435
  29. 21 Myth and Mythmaking in the Douglass Circle 453
  30. 22 “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”: Emily Dickinson’s Poetry and the Creation of the Self 477
  31. 23 The Great Psalm of the Republic: Walt Whitman’s Democratic Poetics 495
  32. Part V: Reception Histories
  33. 24 Transcendentalist Legacies in American Philosophy 517
  34. 25 Rethinking Gender in Antebellum American Literature 537
  35. 26 “In the Woods We Return to Reason and Faith”: American Romanticism, Environmentalism, and Seeker Spirituality 561
  36. Index of Names 579
  37. Index of Subjects 589
  38. List of Contributors 599
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