The Genuine Article: Race, Mass Culture, and American Literary Manhood (New Americanists)

286 Pages·2001·1.75 MB·English

by  Paul Gilmore

Paul Gilmore
The Genuine Article
The Genuine Article
New Americanists
A Series Edited by Donald E. Pease
Paul Gilmore
The Genuine Article
Race, Mass Culture,
and American Literary
Manhood
Duke University Press
Durham and London
2001
∫ 2001 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $
Designed by C. H. Westmoreland
Typeset in Adobe Garamond by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on
the last printed page of this book.
Contents
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Prologue: Staging Manhood, Writing Manhood:
Cultural Authority and the Indian Body 21
1 ‘‘De Genewine Artekil’’: William Wells Brown,
Blackface Minstrelsy, and Abolitionism 37
2 The Indian in the Museum: Henry David Thoreau,
Okah Tubbee, and Authentic Manhood 67
3 A ‘‘Rara Avis in Terris’’: Poe’s ‘‘Hop-Frog’’ and Race
in the Antebellum Freak Show 98
4 Inward Criminality and the Shadow of Race: The House
of the Seven Gables and Daguerreotypy 125
Epilogue: Electric Chains 151
Notes 157
Bibliography 241
Index 267
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Illustrations
1. Frederick S. Agate, Metamora—The Last of the Wampanoags
(1832) 29
2. ‘‘Negro Dentistry,’’ from William Wells Brown, Clotel
(1853) 54
3. Title page of William Wells Brown, A Description of William
Wells Brown’s Original Panoramic Views (1850) 57
4. The Happy Family, from Sights and Wonders in New York . . .
(1864) 72
5. Sixth Saloon, from Sights and Wonders in New York . . .
(1864) 72
6. Grand Entrance to the Boston Museum, from Tom Pop’s
First Visit . . . (1848) 73
7. Title page of A Sketch of the Life of Okah Tubbee (1852) 83
8. Le nain Americain, advertisement for Harvey Leach
(c. 1845) 107
9. Edgar Allan Poe as ‘‘our literary Mohawk’’ 119
10. Ball’s Great Daguerrian Gallery of the West 141
11. Daguerreotype of the slave Jem by J. T. Zealy (1850) 144
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Acknowledgments
Slightly di√erent versions of the first two chapters (‘‘‘De Genewine
Artekil’’’ and ‘‘The Indian in the Museum’’) have previously appeared
in American Literature 69 (December 1997) and Arizona Quarterly 54
(summer 1998), respectively. This book began as a dissertation under
the direction of Bill Brown, Laura Rigal, and Ken Warren at the Uni-
versity of Chicago. I developed many of its central ideas in dialogue
with them in classes and conversations. Their intellectual guidance,
mentorship, and encouragement helped to sustain this project in its
first stages, and their continued interest has helped it to develop more
fully. Once, during a workshop at Chicago, they successively made
cases for the future of American literary studies as a kind of cultural
history, as a category of social history, and as intellectual history. Influ-
enced by their di√erent approaches, this book attempts to bring all
three categories to bear in constructing a history of a particular literary
formation. From the outset of this project, my friends from Chicago
have read and commented on various sections and have o√ered emo-
tional support and friendship. My thanks go out to Charley Davis, Will
Pritchard, Christy Coch, Alexis Dudden, Aeron Hunt, Margaret Kel-
ler, Alison Landsberg, Jamil Mustafa, and Paige Reynolds. I have had
the good fortune to have a collegial and supportive environment at
both Mississippi State and Bucknell University. I would like to thank
John Rickard, Glyne Gri≈th, and Saundra Morris, in particular, for
reading and commenting on parts of this book. My life in Lewisburg
has flourished as Joshua Harmon, Sarah Goldstein, Will Pritchard, and
Mo Healy have lent companionship during the final revisions of the
manuscript. I am particularly grateful to scholars at other institutions
who have generously read and commented on parts of this book: Joan
Dayan, David Leverenz, Alan Trachtenberg, and Terence Whalen.
Their insightful readings as the project neared completion helped me
work through some of the more complex arguments surrounding ante-
bellum American literary culture. At Duke University Press, Donald
Pease was instrumental in supporting this project, and Reynolds Smith
has patiently responded to my many queries. Lynn Walterick provided
close and careful copyediting with a light and generous hand. My