Religion and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century., Sentimentalism in literature., Christianity in literature., American literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism., American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism., American literature., American literature -- Women authors., Religion and literature., Criticism, interpretation, etc., and History.
Eighteenth Century: Theory & Interpretation (University of Pennsylvania Press); Spring2015, Vol. 56 Issue 1, p1-19, 19p
Subjects
CAPITALISM in literature, STORYTELLING in literature, SENTIMENTALISM in literature, and SOCIAL capital
Abstract
The article presents literary criticism of the books "The Adventures of David Simple" and "Volume the Last" by Sarah Fielding. Particular focus is given to the relationship between capitalism and sentimentalism in the novel and in 18th-century literature as a whole. According to the author, the novel rejects financial gain but legitimates the accumulation of social capital through narrative. It is suggested that storytelling can be seen as a currency which is exchanged throughout the book.
Sentimentalism in literature., Philosophy in literature., Emotions in literature., Ethics in literature., Didactic fiction, American -- History and criticism., and Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Abstract
In Sentimental Twain, Gregg Camfield examines the major and minor works of Mark Twain to redraw the boundaries between sentimentalism and realism in the second half of the nineteenth century. Beginning by taking the reactions to the question of race in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a test case, Camfield reveals that sentimental ethics persist, though buried, in American culture, and he argues that Americans' ambivalent responses to sentimentalism explain some of the continuing controversy surrounding Mark Twain's work. Specifically, he contends, insofar as the liberal agenda remains substantially sentimental - especially when dealing with issues of race - today's readers of Twain participate in the same dialectic between sentimental compassion and realistic cynicism that Twain himself confronted. Camfield then traces the cultural development of this ethical dialectic and follows Mark Twain's reactions to it, showing that Twain was a closet sentimentalist whose public attacks on sentimentalism veiled a deep longing for a more compassionate world. Throughout, Sentimental Twain is grounded in a discussion of philosophical contexts of nineteenth-century American sentimental literature, paying particular attention to the Scottish Common Sense philosophers, but looking forward to the Pragmatism of William James.
