Thoreau Walden

Banerjee, Mita: Ethnic Ventriloquism. Literary Minstrelsy in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. (American Studies 159 ). Heidelberg: Winter 2008.
To read the foundational texts of the American Renaissance as well as other canonical nineteenth-century texts as instances of "literary minstrelsy" may at first seem counterintuitive not only in the apparent confounding of popular and literary cultures, but also in the relative significance such a reading would accord to the ethnic difference portrayed in these narratives. Yet, such a reversal of perspective is precisely what this book suggests. Are the strolling Indian in Thoreau's Walden, the Native physician in The Scarlet Letter, or the unkempt Mexican girl in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, really only incidental to these literary narratives? Proposing the concept of "ethnic ventriloquism," this study argues that the commitment of nineteenth-century America to democratic self-renewal may be much more indebted to ethnic sources than it would at first appear. America's pledge to democracy may in fact be an instance of a white subject speaking in an ethnic voice, a literary instance of brownface, redface, yellowface, or blackface. The aim of this re-reading of nineteenth-century American literature is to recover the referent of such ethnic ventriloquism, to imagine the moment where the "real" owner of the ethnic voice appears alongside the white ventriloquist to contemplate the logic of national self-definition of which he may not only be the source, but - in a reversal of roles between ventriloquist and ventriloquist's dummy - the mastermind.

312 S. Kart. *neuwertig*

[KW: Anglistik; Ethnologie; Literaturwissenschaft; Melville, Hermann; Musik; Poe, E.A.]

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Thoreau, Henry D.; Walden. [Deutsch von Emma Emmerich.] München, Concord, o.J. [um 1903], 2. Auflage.

Leineneinband, 8°, XIX, 269 S.; -Gelenke gelockert, Einband berieben, wenige saubere Anstreichungen, Rückengelenk beschädigt, insgesamt sauberes, ordentliches Exemplar.

[KW: Utopie, utopische, einsiedel,]

Details

Banerjee, Mita: Ethnic Ventriloquism Literary Minstrelsy in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. American Studies - A Monograph Series, UNIVERSITÄTSVERLAG WINTER, Januar 2008 ISBN: 3825354369
To read the foundational texts of the American Renaissance as well as other canonical nineteenth-century texts as instances of literary minstrelsy may at first seem counterintuitive not only in the apparent confounding of popular and literary cultures, but also in the relative significance such a reading would accord to the ethnic difference portrayed in these narratives. Yet, such a reversal of perspective is precisely what this book suggests. Are the strolling Indian in Thoreau's Walden, the Native physician in The Scarlet Letter, or the unkempt Mexican girl in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, really only incidental to these literary narratives Proposing the concept of ethnic ventriloquism, this study argues that the commitment of nineteenth-century America to democratic self-renewal may be much more indebted to ethnic sources than it would at first appear. America's pledge to democracy may in fact be an instance of a white subject speaking in an ethnic voice, a literary instance of brownface, redface, yellowface, or blackface. The aim of this re-reading of nineteenth-century American literature is to recover the referent of such ethnic ventriloquism, to imagine the moment where the real owner of the ethnic voice appears alongside the white ventriloquist to contemplate the logic of national self-definition of which he may not only be the source, but - in a reversal of roles between ventriloquist and ventriloquist's dummy - the mastermind.

NEUBUCH! 2008. 312 S. 21 cm 219 mm x 146 mm x 25 mm; American Studies Vol.159

[KW: Amerikanische Literatur]

Details

Thoreau, Henry David: Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston, Ticknor and Fields, 1854. ; 1. Ed.
1st Ed. All four corners are rubbed and frayed, particularly the lower two. Small chip to front edge of rear corner. The lable to the spine is gilt, but cracked and partly missing affecting the words 'Walden' and 'Life'. The covers themselves are dulled and somewhat rubbed. The title page has a damp stain which continues decreasingly through the first 30 pages. The hinges to the content page are weakened and loosened at the top though the page is still intact. A previous owner has pasted a newspaper cutting to the top of the first page proper 'Economy', dealing with living in the ascetic conditions prevailing around Thoreau's house in the woods. The stitching between the advertisement pages is visible. Inside the front cover is a book plate, ex libris, of Anne Bradstreet Stedman depicting lake and mountain surrounded by a border of flowers, books, an owl, a squirrel and an anchor. - Additional pictures (jpg files) available on request.

357 pages and 8 pages of advertisements dated April 1954; 1 plan; 8°, original brown cloth covers, pale yellow endpapers

[KW: First Edition / Erstausgabe]

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