Removals: Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Politics of Indian Affairs

by Lucy Maddox

Overview

This book resituates some familiar nineteenth-century texts within the context of public debates about the place of American Indians in the civil and cultural institutions of the new American nation. Rereading texts by Melville, Hawthorne, Child, Sedgwick, Thoreau, Fuller, and Parkman, Maddox demonstrates the pervasiveness of the anxieties produced by discussion of "the Indian question" and shows how extensively they influenced the production and reception of writing in the first half of the century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195069310
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/24/1991
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	8.57(w) x 5.78(h) x 0.92(d)

About the Author

Georgetown University

Table of Contents

	Introduction	3
1	Civilization or Extinction?	15
2	Writing and Silence: Melville	51
3	Saving the Family: Hawthorne, Child, and Sedgwick	89
4	Points of Departure: Fuller, Thoreau, and Parkman	131
	Conclusion	169
	Notes	179
	Index	199

Editorial Reviews

"Maddox finds in the historical displacement a provocative and brilliant metaphor for the literary displacement of the Indian in Victorian America....An innovative and intelligent restoration of the Indian into American literary discourse."—American Book Review

"Her chapter on Melville is one of the most enlightening contributions to Melville studies to appear in recent years....Maddox's sophisticated intellectual examination of this issue stands as a model for future studies."—Great Plains Quarterly

"A challenging argument for the necessity for greater awareness of Native American issues in criticism of American literature....An excellent first chapter provides one of the best introductory accounts of the framing of the public debate on Indian Affairs from the 1830s through the 1850s....Recommended."—Choice

"Carefully researched and thoughtfully written....For anyone with an interest in American literature and Native American issues this is an essential read."—Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature

"Original and intriguing, Removals will appeal to a broad spectrum of students of American literature, culture, and history, as well as to those with a special interest in Native American studies."—American Renaissance Literary Report

From the Publisher