![]() | Identifying Marks: Race, Gender, and the Marked Body in Nineteenth-Century America Subjects: American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Body Human in literature; Branding (Punishment) -- United States; Tattooing -- United States; Sex role in literature; Race in literature; What we know of the marked body in nineteenth-century American literature and culture often begins with The Scarlet Letter 's Hester Prynne and ends with Moby Dick's Queequeg . This study looks at the presence of marked men and women in a more challenging array of canonical and lesser-known works, including exploration narratives, romances, and frontier novels. Jennifer Putzi shows how tattoos, scars, and brands can function both as stigma and as emblem of healing and survival, thus blurring the borderline between the biological and social, the corporeal and spiritual. JENNIFER PUTZI is a visiting assistant professor of Women's Studies and English at the College of William and Mary. |
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