Amalgamation!: Race, Sex, and Rhetoric in the Nineteenth-Century American Novel

(Hardback)

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James Kinney's Amalgamation!: Race, Sex, and Rhetoric in the Nineteenth-Century American Novel is the definitive study of miscegenation in American literature.... His is an ideal study of the complex but direct relation between a text and the political context that it mirrors, extends, refutes, and comments upon. Amalgamation! is a model demonstration of the relation between literature and society and how a sensitive scholar accounts for this relation without diminishing or reducing the integrity or either.-John W. Blassingame, Sr., Henry Louis, Gates, Jr.
Tracing novelists' treatment of miscegenation in its historical context, from Brackenridge's Modern Chivalry (1792-1815) to novels of Cable and Glasgow, this excellent study shows how the development in fiction of the related themes of violence, interracial sex, and racism reflects changing attitudes in 19th-century America. Kinney goes beyond earlier studies of the literary portrayal of blacks in at least two ways: he relates the works of fiction to clearly defined phases in the history of race relations, and examines more fully the rhetorical strategies (e.g., plot devices, irony, exaggeration, use of foils and stereotypes) by which writers sought to win readers to their views of slavery, intermarriage, and the Negro character. He emphasizes works by the best-known writers, such as Stowe, Cable, Howells, and Chesnutt; but among the 60 novels analyzed are a number of novels by black writers and white writers that receive critical attention for the first time. His analyses, uniformly informative and incisive, should enlighten readers familiar with the primary works as well as those who are not.... A model of clarity and sound scholarship, this book can be recommended to all students of American literature and culture and may be purchased by university, four-year college, community college, and public libraries.-Choice
"James Kinney's Amalgamation!: Race, Sex, and Rhetoric in the Nineteenth-Century American Novel is the definitive study of miscegenation in American literature.... His is an ideal study of the complex but direct relation between a text and the political context that it mirrors, extends, refutes, and comments upon. Amalgamation! is a model demonstration of the relation between literature and society and how a sensitive scholar accounts for this relation without diminishing or reducing the integrity or either."-John W. Blassingame, Sr., Henry Louis, Gates, Jr.
"Tracing novelists' treatment of miscegenation in its historical context, from Brackenridge's Modern Chivalry (1792-1815) to novels of Cable and Glasgow, this excellent study shows how the development in fiction of the related themes of violence, interracial sex, and racism reflects changing attitudes in 19th-century America. Kinney goes beyond earlier studies of the literary portrayal of blacks in at least two ways: he relates the works of fiction to clearly defined phases in the history of race relations, and examines more fully the rhetorical strategies (e.g., plot devices, irony, exaggeration, use of foils and stereotypes) by which writers sought to win readers to their views of slavery, intermarriage, and the Negro character. He emphasizes works by the best-known writers, such as Stowe, Cable, Howells, and Chesnutt; but among the 60 novels analyzed are a number of novels by black writers and white writers that receive critical attention for the first time. His analyses, uniformly informative and incisive, should enlighten readers familiar with the primary works as well as those who are not.... A model of clarity and sound scholarship, this book can be recommended to all students of American literature and culture and may be purchased by university, four-year college, community college, and public libraries."-Choice