Anna Seward and the Many (After) Lives of Major André: Trauma, Mourning and Transatlantic Literary Legacy

This essay traces the publication history and reception of Anna Seward’s Monody on Major André and considers its impact on Anglo-American literary history and cultural memory. By marking the deepening ideological rift between Britain and America, Seward’s Monody and the many literary works that followed it captured a feeling of conflicted loyalties by rallying both British patriotism and American sympathy. Paradoxically, by remembering André’s death collectively, these works of transatlantic literary mourning can be seen to mark both a moment of political rupture and a reunification of divided Anglo-American culture.