Table Of Contentcommon things
fordham university press new york 2014
commonalities
Timothy C. Campbell, series editor
COMMON THINGS
Romance and the Aesthetics of Belonging
in Atlantic Modernity
james d. lilley
Copyright © 2014 Fordham University Press
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“Henry Mackenzie’s Ruined Feelings: Romance, Race, and the Afterlife
of Sentimental Exchange.” Copyright © 2007 New Literary History, The
University of Virginia. This article first appeared in New Literary History
Volume 38, Issue 4, Autumn, 2007, pages 649–66.
“Studies in Uniquity: Horace Walpole’s Singular Collection” reprinted
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lilley, James D. (James David), 1971–
Common Things : Romance and the Aesthetics of Belonging in
Atlantic Modernity / James D. Lilley.
pages cm. — (Commonalities)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8232-5515-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Literature—Philosophy—History. I. Title.
PN45 .L467
801—dc23
2013009214
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
A book in the American Literatures Initiative (ALI), a collaborative
publishing project of NYU Press, Fordham University Press, Rutgers
University Press, Temple University Press, and the University of Virginia
Press. The Initiative is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
For more information, please visit www.americanliteratures.org.
contents
Acknowledgments ...................... vii
Introduction: Common Things .............1
1 Genre ..................................15
A Singular Blend: Genre and the Aesthetics
of Belonging ............................. 15
Allegory, Romance, and the Idea of Genre ....20
At Home with the Uncanny: Walpole
and the Idea of History ....................36
Apology .................................47
2 Feeling .................................50
Romance, Race, Ruin: Henry Mackenzie
and the Afterlife of Sentimental Exchange ....50
Jefferson and the Transatlantic Man
of Feeling ................................67
3 Property/Personhood .....................75
Conjuring Community: Arthur Mervyn
and the Aesthetics of Ruin ................. 75
“My Extraordinary Duality”:
The Metempsychosis of Modern
Personhood in Sheppard Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Cooper, Mesmerism, and the “Immaterial
Substance” of Taste in The Autobiography
of a Pocket-Handkerchief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4 Event/Hiatus ...........................120
The Aesthetics of American Idling .......... 120
Indian Removal and the Grimace
of Ruined History ........................ 142
5 No Thing In Common ...................168
Studies in Uniquity: Horace Walpole’s
Singular Collection ...................... 168
Coda: Poe’s Allegories of Belonging ......... 198
Notes .....................................209
Index ..................................... 237
acknowledgments
Born of the productive polarity between two necessary fictions—one of
origins and origination, the other of closure and completion—what the
acknowledgment first acknowledges is the mystery of belonging in and
bearing witness to an experience, a history, a life. I owe my sense of this
mystery—and my desire to explore its aesthetics of belonging—to many
wonderful people, and I’d like to begin by acknowledging their singular
influence over the work that follows.
This book began to take shape at the University of Arizona, where I had
the chance to work with Colin Dayan, Annette Kolodny, and Greg Jackson
in the Literature Program. Colin continued to influence my studies when I
moved to Princeton, and Common Things grew out of discussions that we
had with Eduardo Cadava and Claudia Johnson. In Eduardo and Claudia,
I was fortunate enough to find talented and generous advisors who supple-
ment their inspiration and support with the trust and freedom to let their
students learn from their own mistakes. In addition to their friendship
and their skills as advisors, I also benefitted from superb courses that they
offered on Emerson, the gothic romance, and the sentimental novel. And
in other equally memorable courses and discussions at Princeton, I found
my approach to and understanding of literature transformed by D. Vance
Smith, Jeff Nunokawa, Michael Wood, April Alliston, Jennifer Greeson,
Cornel West, and a number of extremely talented graduate students who
helped to make these classroom experiences so rewarding.
Princeton’s financial support also made it possible for me to study with
Meredith McGill at Rutgers and Eric Cheyfitz at the University of Penn-
sylvania; and my stipend facilitated a vital, if somewhat precarious, exis-
tence in upper, upper Manhattan, rich in companionship and conversation
thanks to fellow graduate students Evan Horowitz, Michael Sayeau, and
Liesl Olson. Liesl and I became friends at the Huntington Library, and the
four spectacular summers that I spent in San Marino with the Hunting-
ton’s special collections make their presence felt in both the form and the
content of this work. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Susi Krasnoo and
Mona Noureldin for helping me to get to know Horace Walpole; and to my
other Huntington pals—especially Roberto Alvarez, Jennifer Hallam, and
Roze Hentschell—I thank you all for your warmth, support, and contin-
ued kindness over the years.
Over the past five years, the University at Albany, SUNY, has provided
me with the intellectual and financial support necessary to complete this
book. I am indebted to the advocacy of several department chairs—Mike
Hill, Stephen North, and Randall Craig—as well as to grants from the
English Department, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the United
University Professions, for helping to foster the freedom necessary to think
clearly. In both my graduate and undergraduate courses, remarkable stu-
dents have accompanied me along some of the eccentric pathways in this
book, enrichening its argument in countless ways. In Albany, I have been
spoiled with the kindness and vibrancy of mind of so many friends and
colleagues. To Branka Arsić, I owe an infinite debt of thanks for the pre-
cision of her guidance as Common Things began to take its final shape.
Jennifer Greiman’s expertise and insight encouraged me to persist with
certain lines of thought, while David Wills, Kir Kuiken, Bret Benjamin,
Tom Cohen, and Paul Stasi helped me to grapple with ideas and prose as
I moved through various stages of the book and its argument. I also send
thanks to those colleagues whose friendship and hospitality at various din-
ner tables and other clean, well-lighted places have energized both my body
and mind. In particular I toast Ed Schwarzschild, Laura Wilder, Helene
Scheck, Elisa Albert, Liz Lauenstein, Richard Barney, Don Byrd, Patricia
Chu, Eric Keenaghan, Tomás Urayoán Noel, and Ineke Murakami.
Beyond Albany, I have enjoyed friendship and conversation with schol-
ars who have altered, challenged, and inspired the work you are about to
read. Among many others, I’m especially grateful to Andy Doolen, Dun-
can Faherty, Ruth Mack, John Miles, Hillary Emmett, Gabriel Cervantes,
Michael Drexler, Toni Wall Jaudon, Angela Mullis, Ed White, Sophie Gee,
John Funchion, Siân Silyn Roberts, Ed Cahill, and Paul Kelleher for the
myriad ways in which they make my profession feel like my home.
viii Acknowledgments
At Fordham University Press, I have been fortunate enough to work
with Helen Tartar and a wonderful editorial staff who have skillfully
and efficiently ushered this book to print. In particular I thank Timothy
Campbell, Thomas Lay, Tim Roberts, Susan Murray, and the American
Literatures Initiative for their support of and care with my work.
Finally, to my family on both sides of the Atlantic, I thank you for hav-
ing faith in me over the long, long years of graduate study during which
this project began to take shape. To Lorraine, Spiro, Peter, and Suzanne
I am forever grateful for the gift of our community; and while I dedicate
Common Things to the memory of my parents, Brenda and David Lilley, I
offer it to you both, Lauren and Jack, and to the singularity of our quest.
Acknowledgments ix
