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Chargement... Hidden in Plain Sight (Mercer University Lamar Memorial Lectures Series)par John T. Matthews
Aucun mot-clé Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.  pomo58 | May 3, 2020 |  aucune critique | ajouter une critique
"For as long as the US owed its prosperity to a New World plantation complex, from colonial settlement until well into the twentieth century, the toxic practices associated with its permutations stimulated imaginary solutions to contradiction of the nation's enlightenment ideals and republican ideology. Ideals of liberty, democracy, and individualism could not be separated from a history of forcible coercion, oligarchic power, and state-protected economic opportunism. While recent historical scholarship about what has been called "slavery's capitalism" explores the depths at which US ascension was indebted to global plantation slave economies, Hidden in Plain Sight probes how exemplary works of literature represented a society's determination to deny an open national sore. Difficult truths were hidden in plain sight, allowing beholders at once to recognize and disavow knowledge they would not act upon. What were the habits of mind that enabled free Americans to acknowledge what was intolerable yet act as if they did not? In what ways did non-slave-owning Americans imagine a relation to slavery that both admitted its iniquity and accepted its benefits? How did the reconfiguration of the plantation system after the Civil War, both at home and abroad, elicit new forms for dealing with its perpetuation of racial injustice, expropriation of labor, and exploitation for profit of the land? Hidden in Plain Sight examines exemplary nineteenth century works by Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Joel Chandler Harris to show how writers portrayed a nation founded on the unseen seen of slavery's capitalism"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires 
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.309355Literature English (North America) American fiction Middle 19th Century 1830-1861Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (4)
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I personally found the Poe chapter the least interesting, though that is not because of Matthews but because I didn't remember enough of Pym to be able to fully decide how much I might agree or disagree. Matthews' arguments throughout this book are detailed and having the work at hand or fresh in your memory would absolutely help. Pym just happens to be one a story I never cared for very much so I wasn't willing to revisit it right now. That said, his textual points were valid based on what I could recall and in conjunction with outside sources he brought in.
I used the term plausible deniability in my opening paragraph and I don't recall whether he used that term or not. It may not be a perfectly accurate way to convey what Matthews is illustrating here but I do think it will get prospective readers started down the right road. My basic summary, and this is my understanding and may not be 100% accurate with what Matthews intended or what another reader might take away, is pretty straightforward. Even in works that didn't directly address slavery, whether in the US or abroad, even works written by authors who might not have "supported" it, it was still present but not explicitly. In referring to any economy of the time, not just the southern economy, one was acknowledging the slave trade and the global slave capitalism of the time. By shedding a positive light on that aspect it made the ugly part of the economy unseen but acceptable by proxy. Or at least not present enough so that a reader had to acknowledge their reliance on slavery and the slave trade.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in either the history or the literature. I will make one small caveat, the number of textual references moves this from a broad read for mass consumption to one geared much more for those either in academia or whose interest includes close readings and interpretations. Having said that, the book is accessibly written, there is nothing that should prevent an interested reader from gaining a great deal of insight, just be prepared to possibly reference the works and/or reread them so you can follow more easily.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. (