Bodies of Reform : The Rhetoric of Character in Gilded Age America / James B. Salazar.
2010
PS374.C43 S36 2016
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Details
Title
Bodies of Reform : The Rhetoric of Character in Gilded Age America / James B. Salazar.
Author
Salazar, James B., author.
ISBN
9780814786536
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2010]
Copyright
©2010
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Other Standard Identifiers
10.18574/nyu/9780814741306.001.0001 doi
Call Number
PS374.C43 S36 2016
Dewey Decimal Classification
823.809353
Summary
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.
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Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Series
America and the Long 19th Century ; ; 14
Available in Other Form
print 9780814741306
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Philanthropic Taste
2. Character Is Capital
3. Muscle Memory
4. "A Story Written on Her Face"
5. Character's Conduct
Notes
Index
About the Author
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Philanthropic Taste
2. Character Is Capital
3. Muscle Memory
4. "A Story Written on Her Face"
5. Character's Conduct
Notes
Index
About the Author