American Literature Readings in the 21st Century

Urakova, Alexandra

This book explores the dark, unruly, and self-destructive side of gift-giving as represented in nineteenth-century literary works by American authors. It asserts the centrality and relevance of gift exchange for modern American literary and intellectual history and reveals the ambiguity of the gift in various social and cultural contexts, including those of race, sex, gender, religion, consumption, and literature. Focusing on authors as diverse as Emerson, Kirkland, Child, Sedgwick, Hawthorne, Poe, Douglass, Stowe, Holmes, Henry James, Twain, Howells, Wilkins Freeman, and O. Henry as well as lesser-known, obscure, and anonymous authors, Dangerous Giving explores ambivalent relations between dangerous gifts, modern ideology of disinterested giving, and sentimental tradition.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2022-04-28

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9783030932695

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-93270-1

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 244