New World Courtships: Transatlantic Alternatives to Companionate Marriage

224 Pages·2015·2.1 MB·English

by  Melissa M. Adams-Campbell

New world Courtships

re-MappiNg the traNsNatioNal
A Dartmouth Series in American Studies
series editor
Donald E. Pease
Avalon Foundation Chair of Humanities
Founding Director of the Futures of American Studies Institute
Dartmouth College
The emergence of Transnational American Studies in the wake of the Cold
War marks the most significant reconfiguration of American Studies since its
inception. The shock waves generated by a newly globalized world order de-
manded an understanding of America’s embeddedness within global and local
processes rather than scholarly reaffirmations of its splendid isolation. The se-
ries Re-Mapping the Transnational seeks to foster the cross-national dialogues
needed to sustain the vitality of this emergent field. To advance a truly compar-
ativist understanding of this scholarly endeavor, Dartmouth College Press wel-
comes monographs from scholars both inside and outside the United States.
For a complete list of books available in this series, see www.upne.com.
Melissa M. Adams-Campbell, New World Courtships: Transatlantic Alternatives
to Companionate Marriage
David LaRocca and Ricardo Miguel-Alfonso, editors, A Power to Translate the
World: New Essays on Emerson and International Culture
Rob Kroes, Prison Area, Independence Valley: American Paradoxes in Political
Life and Popular Culture
Etsuko Taketani, The Black Pacific Narrative: Geographic Imaginings of Race
and Empire between the World Wars
William V. Spanos, Shock and Awe: American Exceptionalism and the
Imperatives of the Spectacle in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur’s Court
Laura Bieger, Ramón Saldívar, and Johannes Voelz, editors, The Imaginary and
Its Worlds: American Studies after the Transnational Turn
Paul A. Bové, A More Conservative Place: Intellectual Culture in the Bush Era
John Muthyala, Dwelling in American: Dissent, Empire, and Globalization
Winfried Fluck, Donald E. Pease, and John Carlos Rowe, editors, Re-Framing
the Transnational Turn in American Studies

Melissa M. adaMs-CaMpbell
New world
Courtships
Transatlantic
Alternatives to
Companionate
Marriage
dartMouth College press
haNover, New haMpshire
Dartmouth College Press
An imprint of University Press of New England
www.upne.com
© 2015 Trustees of Dartmouth College
All rights reserved
For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book, contact
Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street, Suite
250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www.upne.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adams-Campbell, Melissa M.
New world courtships: transatlantic alternatives to companionate
marriage / Melissa M. Adams-Campbell.
pages cm—(Re-mapping the transnational: a Dartmouth series in
American studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “The first scholarly study to recover a geographically
diverse array of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century countertexts that
actively compare culturally diverse marriage practices from Canada to
the Caribbean”—Provided by publisher.
isbn 978-1-61168-831-3 (cloth: alk. paper)— isbn 978-1-61168-832-0
(pbk.: alk. paper)— isbn 978-1-61168-833-7 (ebook)
1. Marriage in literature. 2. Courtship in literature. 3. Sex in litera-
ture. 4. Man-woman relationships in literature. 5. Literature—18th
century—History and criticism. 6. Literature—19th century—History and
criticism. 7. Man-woman relationships—Cross-cultural studies. 8. Com-
panionate marriage—Cross-cultural studies. I. Title. II. Title: Transatlan-
tic alternatives to companionate marriage.
pn56.m28a33 2015
809'.933543—dc23
2015008498
CoNteNts
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Mapping Marriage 1
1 Why Marriage Mattered Then 21
2 Comparing Rights, Comparing Stories 42
3 Making Room for Coquettes and Fallen Women 70
4 A Postcolonial Heroine “Writes Back” 97
5 Bungling Bundling 113
Epilogue: Why Marriage Matters Now 140
Notes 147
Bibliography 177
Index 197