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Summary:

"In the mid-19th century, rhetoric surrounding slavery was permeated by violence. Slavery's defenders often used brute force to suppress opponents, and even those abolitionists dedicated to pacifism drew upon visions of widespread destruction. Provocative Eloquence recounts how the theater, long an arena for heightened eloquence and physical contest, proved terribly relevant in the lead up to the Civil War. As antislavery speech and open conflict intertwined, the nation became a stage. The book brings together notions of intertextuality and interperformativity to understand how the confluence of oratorical and theatrical practices in the antebellum period reflected the conflict over slavery and deeply influenced the language that barely contained that conflict. The book draws on a wide range of work in performance studies, theater history, black performance theory, oratorical studies, and literature and law to provide a new narrative of the interaction of oratorical, theatrical, and literary histories of the nineteenth-century U.S."-- [Provided by publisher]

Table of Contents:

• Introduction. Provocative eloquence and the Antebellum scene
• Edwin Forrest and heroic oratory
• William Wells Brown, Mary Webb, and the emergence of dramatic suasion
• Martyred eloquence and stagings of Dred
• Portia's eloquence and the law in racial melodrama
• Staging John Brown in eloquence and action.

Author/Creator:

Mielke, Laura L. , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Provocative eloquence: theater, violence, and antislavery speech in the antebellum United States [by Mielke, L.L.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Provocative eloquence [by Mielke, L.L.] ([Ann Arbor, Michigan] : University of Michigan Press, [2019] — ISBN 9780472131051; LCCN 2018056748)

Subjects:

Theater — United States — History — 19th century

Theater and society — United States — History — 19th century

Antislavery movements — United States — History — 19th century

Violence in literature

1800-1899

Theater and society

Antislavery movements

Theater

United States

Genres:

History

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on: Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on March 08, 2019).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 283 pages)

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

PN2248 .M54 2019eb

ISBNs:

9780472124374 (electronic book)
0472124374 (electronic book)
9780472131051 [Invalid]

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2019001365

OCLC Numbers:

1076574280