Philadelphia Stories

America's Literature of Race and Freedom

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book Philadelphia Stories by Samuel Otter, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Samuel Otter ISBN: 9780199889617
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: January 2, 2013
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Samuel Otter
ISBN: 9780199889617
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: January 2, 2013
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

In Philadelphia Stories, Samuel Otter finds literary value, historical significance, and political urgency in a sequence of texts written in and about Philadelphia between the Constitution and the Civil War. Historians such as Gary B. Nash and Julie Winch have chronicled the distinctive social and political space of early national Philadelphia. Yet while individual writers such as Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, and George Lippard have been linked to Philadelphia, no sustained attempt has been made to understand these figures, and many others, as writing in a tradition tied to the city's history. The site of William Penn's "Holy Experiment" in religious toleration and representative government and of national Declaration and Constitution, near the border between slavery and freedom, Philadelphia was home to one of the largest and most influential "free" African American communities in the United States. The city was seen by residents and observers as the laboratory for a social experiment with international consequences. Philadelphia would be the stage on which racial character would be tested and a possible future for the United States after slavery would be played out. It would be the arena in which various residents would or would not demonstrate their capacities to participate in the nation's civic and political life. Otter argues that the Philadelphia "experiment" (the term used in the nineteenth-century) produced a largely unacknowledged literary tradition of peculiar forms and intensities, in which verbal performance and social behavior assumed the weight of race and nation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Philadelphia Stories, Samuel Otter finds literary value, historical significance, and political urgency in a sequence of texts written in and about Philadelphia between the Constitution and the Civil War. Historians such as Gary B. Nash and Julie Winch have chronicled the distinctive social and political space of early national Philadelphia. Yet while individual writers such as Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, and George Lippard have been linked to Philadelphia, no sustained attempt has been made to understand these figures, and many others, as writing in a tradition tied to the city's history. The site of William Penn's "Holy Experiment" in religious toleration and representative government and of national Declaration and Constitution, near the border between slavery and freedom, Philadelphia was home to one of the largest and most influential "free" African American communities in the United States. The city was seen by residents and observers as the laboratory for a social experiment with international consequences. Philadelphia would be the stage on which racial character would be tested and a possible future for the United States after slavery would be played out. It would be the arena in which various residents would or would not demonstrate their capacities to participate in the nation's civic and political life. Otter argues that the Philadelphia "experiment" (the term used in the nineteenth-century) produced a largely unacknowledged literary tradition of peculiar forms and intensities, in which verbal performance and social behavior assumed the weight of race and nation.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book Where Metaphors Come From by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Behold the Man by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book The Blessings of Business by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Integrative Women's Health by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book A Historical Guide to James Baldwin by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Walden by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Mendelssohn and the Organ by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book The Bijak of Kabir by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Private Equity by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Sherlock Holmes Short Stories - With Audio Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Seven Steps to Managing Your Memory by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Introduction to Psychological Theories and Psychotherapy by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book Health by Samuel Otter
Cover of the book "Far, Far From Home" by Samuel Otter
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy