![]() | Apocalyptic Sentimentalism Subjects: LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General.; Literature and society; Emotions in literature.; African Americans in literature.; Apocalyptic literature.; Antislavery movements in literature.; Slavery in literature.; American literature; In contrast to the prevailing scholarly consensus that understands sentimentality to be grounded on a logic of love and sympathy, Apocalyptic Sentimentalism demonstrates that in order for sentimentality to work as an antislavery engine, it needed to be linked to its seeming opposite-fear, especially the fear of God's wrath. Most antislavery reformers recognized that calls for love and sympathy or the representation of suffering slaves would not lead an audience to "feel right" or to actively oppose slavery. The threat of God's apocalyptic vengeance-and the terror that this threat inspired-functioned within the tradition of abolitionist sentimentality as a necessary goad for sympathy and love. Fear, then, was at the center of nineteenth-century sentimental strategies for inciting antislavery reform, bolstering love when love faltered, and operating as a powerful mechanism for establishing interracial sympathy. Depictions of God's apocalyptic vengeance constituted the most efficient strategy for antislavery writers to generate a sense of terror in their audience. KEVIN PELLETIER is an associate professor of English at the University of Richmond. His work has been published in African American Review , Cultural Critique , and LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory . |
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