Barriers between Us: Interracial Sex in Nineteenth-Century American Literature

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THIS PROVOCATIVE BOOK examines the representation of characters of mixed African and European descent in the works of African American and European American writers of the nineteenth century. The importance of mulatto figures as agents of ideological exchange in the American literary tradition has yet to receive sustained critical attention. Going beyond Sterling Brown’s melodramatic stereotype of the mulatto as “tragic figure,” Cassandra Jackson’s close study of nine works of fiction shows how the mulatto trope reveals the social, cultural, and political ideas of the period. Jackson uncovers a vigorous discussion in nineteenth-century fiction about the role of racial ideology in the creation of an American identity. She analyzes the themes of race-mixing, the “mulatto,” nation building, and the social fluidity of race (and its imagined biological rigidity) in novels by James Fenimore Cooper, Richard Hildreth, Lydia Maria Child, Frances E. W. Harper, Thomas Detter, George Washington Cable, and Charles Chesnutt. CASSANDRA JACKSON is Assistant Professor of English at Northeastern University in Boston. Blacks in the Diaspora Interracial Sex in NineteenthCentury American Literature Jackson INDIANA http://iupress.indiana.edu 1-800-842-6796 B A R R I E R S B E T W E E N U S Cassandra Jackson African American Studies • Literary Criticism  BARRIERSBETWEENUS Cover photos: Library of Congress BARRIERS BETWEEN US Blacks in the Diaspora Founding Editors: Darlene Clark Hine, John McCluskey Jr., and David Barry Gaspar Editor: Claude A. Clegg III Advisory Board: Kim D. Butler, Judith A. Byfield, Leslie A. Schwalm, Tracy Sharpley-Whiting Cassandra Jackson Barriers between Us Interracial Sex in Nineteenth-Century American Literature Indiana University Press Bloomington and Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail iuporder@indiana.edu© 2004 by Cassandra Jackson All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jackson, Cassandra, date Barriers between us : interracial sex in nineteenth-century American literature / Cassandra Jackson. p. cm. — (Blacks in the diaspora) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-253-34511-1 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21733-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American fiction—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Racially mixed people in literature. 3. Miscegenation in literature . 4. Race in literature. I. Title. II. Series. PS374.M84J33 2004 813’.3093552—dc22 2004007879 1 2 3 4 5 09 08 07 06 05 04 For Breona ...