{"product_id":"apocalyptic-sentimentalism-kevin-pelletier-9780820354675","title":"Apocalyptic Sentimentalism: Love and Fear in U.S. Antebellum Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn contrast to the prevailing scholarly consensus that understands sentimentality to be grounded on a logic of love and sympathy, \u003cem\u003e Apocalyptic Sentimentalism\u003c\/em\u003e demonstrates that in order for sentimentality to work as an antislavery engine, it needed to be linked to its seeming opposite--fear, especially the fear of God's wrath. Most antislavery reformers recognized that calls for love and sympathy or the representation of suffering slaves would not lead an audience to \"feel right\" or to actively oppose slavery. The threat of God's apocalyptic vengeance--and the terror that this threat inspired--functioned within the tradition of abolitionist sentimentality as a necessary goad for sympathy and love. Fear, then, was at the center of nineteenth-century sentimental strategies for inciting antislavery reform, bolstering love when love faltered, and operating as a powerful mechanism for establishing interracial sympathy. Depictions of God's apocalyptic vengeance constituted the most efficient strategy for antislavery writers to generate a sense of terror in their audience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFocusing on a range of important antislavery figures, including David Walker, Nat Turner, Maria Stewart, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Brown, \u003cem\u003eApocalyptic Sentimentalism\u003c\/em\u003e illustrates how antislavery discourse worked to redefine violence and vengeance as the ultimate expression (rather than denial) of love and sympathy. At the same time, these warnings of apocalyptic retribution enabled antislavery writers to express, albeit indirectly, fantasies of brutal violence against slaveholders. What began as a sentimental strategy quickly became an incendiary gesture, with antislavery reformers envisioning the complete annihilation of slaveholders and defenders of slavery.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Kevin Pelletier\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0820354678\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820354675\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Georgia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/15\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.73lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.68d","brand":"Kevin Pelletier","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44059871150335,"sku":"9780820354675","price":27.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_df5dda89-1761-4efa-b81c-c65dcff8c103.jpg?v=1685060804","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/apocalyptic-sentimentalism-kevin-pelletier-9780820354675","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}