Sensationalism and the Jew in Antebellum American Literature

The presence of the sensational Jew in antebellum literature is examined in this book, which argues that he is a revealing figure in antebellum culture and an important antecedent to contemporary antisemitism in the US. He embodies a felt anxiety about the unstable nature of social categories and a sense of loss and self-hatred in modern Gentile identity.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 04 July 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The captivating yet often overlooked presence of the sensational Jew in antebellum literature is explored in this book. This stereotyped character predominantly emerges in the pulpy sensation fiction of popular writers like George Lippard, Ned Buntline, Emerson Bennett, and others. However, it also holds a significant place in the sometimes sensational work of canonical writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman. Regardless of the medium, this character, always overdetermined, consistently performs cultural work.

This book argues that, as the figure who embodies money and capitalism in the antebellum imagination, the sensational Jew is the character who most fully represents a felt anxiety about the increasingly unstable nature of a range of social categories in the antebellum US, as well as the sense of loss and self-hatred that often lurks in the background of modern Gentile identity.

Each chapter delves into a different form of sensationalism, such as urban gothic, sentimental city mysteries, anti-Tom plantation narratives, and more. At the same time, it examines a different set of anxieties, including threats to class status, collapsing regional identity, the uncertain status of Whiteness and other racial categories, and more. Throughout, the sensational Jew serves as both a figure of proteophobia, fear of disorder and ambivalence, and as the figure who embodies in uncanny form a more fulfilling and socially coherent form of identity that predates the modern liberal selfhood of the post-Enlightenment world.

As such, the sensational Jew is a revealing figure in antebellum culture and an important antecedent to contemporary antisemitism in the US. This book sheds light on the complex and multifaceted ways in which the Jew was portrayed and understood in antebellum literature, contributing to a deeper understanding of the cultural and historical context of this period.

Weight: 394g
Dimension: 240 x 160 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192871732