
Twentieth-Century Sentimentalism
Jennifer A Williamson
Today’s critical establishment assumes that sentimentalism is an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary mode that all but disappeared by the twentieth century. In this book, Jennifer Williamson argues that sentimentalism is alive and well in the modern era. By examining working-class literature that adopts the rhetoric of “feeling right” in order to promote a proletarian or humanist ideology as well as neo-slave narratives that wrestle with the legacy of slavery and cultural definitions of African American families, she explores the ways contemporary authors engage with familiar sentimental clichés and ideals.
Williamson covers new ground by examining authors who are not generally read ... Read more
Show LessProduct Details
About Jennifer A Williamson
Reviews for Twentieth-Century Sentimentalism
Kristin J. Jacobson
author of Neodomestic American Fiction
"Jennifer Williamson writes with unusual range. Drawing concepts from the nineteenth century, she gives excellent readings of twentieth century texts, ... Read more