Cato's Tears and the Making of Anglo-American EmotionHow did the public expression of feeling become central to political culture in England and the United States? In this ambitious revisionist account of a much expanded "Age of Sensibility," Julie Ellison traces the evolution of the politics of emotion on both sides of the Atlantic from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century. Early popular dramas of this time, Ellison shows, linked male stoicism with sentimentality through portrayals of stoic figures whose civic sacrifices bring other men to tears. Later works develop a different model of sensibility, drawing their objects of sympathy from other races and classes—Native Americans, African slaves, servants. Only by examining these texts in light of the complex masculine tradition of stoic sentimentality, Ellison argues, can one interpret women's roles in the culture of sensibility. In her conclusion, Ellison offers "a short history of liberal guilt," exploring the enduring link between male stoicism and male sensibility in political and cultural life from the late seventeenth century to today. |
Contents
CHAPTER | 23 |
CHAPTER | 48 |
CHAPTER THREE | 74 |
CHAPTER FOUR | 97 |
CHAPTER FIVE | 123 |
CHAPTER | 148 |
CONCLUSION | 155 |
Liberal Guilt and Libertarian Revival | 171 |
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Absalom Absalom and Achitophel Addison's Cato Algerine Captive ambivalence Barbary Barbauld Bleecker British captivity narratives Cato Institute Cato's Letters Celario character civic Clithero colonial complaint conspiracy critical culture death discourse drama earl of Shaftesbury Edgar Huntly eighteenth eighteenth-century emotion empire English Exclusion Crisis fancy fancy's father feeling female figure Freneau friendship gender genre homosocial imagination imperial Indian Jaffeir Juba Juba's Judith Sargent Murray Lauren Berlant Lee's liberal guilt libertarian liberty literary London Lucius Junius Brutus male masculine sensibility Massinissa melancholia moral Morton mourning Native American North African novel Ouabi passion pathos Pierre play Plot poem poet poetry political Ponteach race relationship republic republican rhetoric Roman Rome Sarsefield savage scene Scipio sentimental slave slavery social Sophonisba soul speaker stoic stoicism story suffering suicide sympathy Syphax tears tion Titus Ulamar vicarious victim virtue weeping Wheatley Wheatley's Whig women writing York