Cast Down: Abjection In America, 1700-1850 (early American Studies)
by Mark J. Miller /
2016 / English / PDF
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Derived from the Latin
Derived from the Latinabiectus
abiectus, literally meaning "thrown
or cast down," "abjection" names the condition of being servile,
wretched, or contemptible. In Western religious tradition, to be
abject is to submit to bodily suffering or psychological
mortification for the good of the soul. In
, literally meaning "thrown
or cast down," "abjection" names the condition of being servile,
wretched, or contemptible. In Western religious tradition, to be
abject is to submit to bodily suffering or psychological
mortification for the good of the soul. InCast Down:
Abjection in America, 1700-1850
Cast Down:
Abjection in America, 1700-1850, Mark J. Miller argues that
transatlantic Protestant discourses of abjection engaged with,
and furthered the development of, concepts of race and sexuality
in the creation of public subjects and public spheres.
, Mark J. Miller argues that
transatlantic Protestant discourses of abjection engaged with,
and furthered the development of, concepts of race and sexuality
in the creation of public subjects and public spheres.
Miller traces the connection between sentiment, suffering, and
publication and the role it played in the movement away from
church-based social reform and toward nonsectarian radical
rhetoric in the public sphere. He focuses on two periods of rapid
transformation: first, the 1730s and 1740s, when new models of
publication and transportation enabled transatlantic Protestant
religious populism, and, second, the 1830s and 1840s, when
liberal reform movements emerged from nonsectarian religious
organizations. Analyzing eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
conversion narratives, personal narratives, sectarian magazines,
poems, and novels, Miller shows how church and social reformers
used sensational accounts of abjection in their attempts to make
the public sphere sacred as a vehicle for political change,
especially the abolition of slavery.
Miller traces the connection between sentiment, suffering, and
publication and the role it played in the movement away from
church-based social reform and toward nonsectarian radical
rhetoric in the public sphere. He focuses on two periods of rapid
transformation: first, the 1730s and 1740s, when new models of
publication and transportation enabled transatlantic Protestant
religious populism, and, second, the 1830s and 1840s, when
liberal reform movements emerged from nonsectarian religious
organizations. Analyzing eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
conversion narratives, personal narratives, sectarian magazines,
poems, and novels, Miller shows how church and social reformers
used sensational accounts of abjection in their attempts to make
the public sphere sacred as a vehicle for political change,
especially the abolition of slavery.