The Nadir and the Zenith: Temperance and Excess in the Early African American Novel PDF
Preview The Nadir and the Zenith: Temperance and Excess in the Early African American Novel
THE NADIR & THE ZENITH •q PPOOCCHHMMAARRAA NNaaddiirr FFNNLLpppp..iinndddd 11 11//88//2211 1100::2288 AAMM This page intentionally left blank THE NADIR & THE ZENITH TEMPERANCE & EXCESS IN THE EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN NOVEL ANNA POCHMARA i i i THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS ATHENS q• PPOOCCHHMMAARRAA NNaaddiirr FFNNLLpppp..iinndddd 33 11//88//2211 1100::2288 AAMM © 2021 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602 www.ugapress.org All rights reserved Designed by Kaelin Chappell Broaddus Set in 11/13.5 Adobe Jenson Pro by Kaelin Chappell Broaddus Most University of Georgia Press titles are available from popular e-book vendors. Printed digitally Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pochmara, Anna, author. Title: The nadir & the zenith : temperance & excess in the early African American novel / Anna Pochmara. Other titles: The nadir and the zenith Description: Athens : The University of Georgia Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2020041574 (print) | lccn 2020041575 (ebook) | isbn 9780820358918 (hardback) | isbn 9780820359021 (paperback) | isbn 9780820358925 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: American fiction—African American authors—History and criticism. | American fiction—19th century—History and criticism. | Temperance in literature. | Characters and characteristics in literature. | African Americans—Intellectual life—19th century. Classification: lcc ps153.n5 p634 2020 (print) | lcc ps153.n5 (ebook) | ddc 813/.309896073—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020041574 lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020041575 PPOOCCHHMMAARRAA NNaaddiirr FFNNLLpppp..iinndddd 44 11//88//2211 1100::2288 AAMM CONTENTS i i i Acknowledgments vii Introduction The Zenith and the Nadir the eArly AfricAn AmericAn novel 1 Part 1. The Excess of Mulatta Melodrama Chapter 1 Mulatta Melodrama mixed rAce And the melodrAmAtic mode in the eArly blAck novel 17 Chapter 2 The Apple Falls Far from the Tree mAtrilineAl opposition in mulAttA melodrAmA 31 Chapter 3 The Fall of Man white mAsculinity on triAl 59 Part 2. Black Tropes of Temperance Chapter 4 The Genre Mergers of the Nadir Antidrink literAture, sentimentAlism, And nAturAlism in blAck temperAnce nArrAtives 103 PPOOCCHHMMAARRAA NNaaddiirr FFNNLLpppp..iinndddd 55 11//88//2211 1100::2288 AAMM Chapter 5 Aesthetic Excess, Ethical Discipline, and Racial Indeterminacy frAnces ellen wAtkins hArper’s Sowing and Reaping 112 Chapter 6 Tropes of Temperance, Specters of Naturalism AmeliA e. Johnson’s ClaRenCe and CoRinne 131 Chapter 7 Enslavement to Philanthropy, Freedom from Heredity pAul lAurence dunbAr’s The UnCalled 147 Chapter 8 Metropolitan Possibilities and Compulsions the mulAttA And the dAndy in pAul lAurence dunbAr’s The SpoRT of The godS 165 Conclusion The Nadir and Beyond echoes of mulAttA melodrAmA And the blAck temperAnce novel in the eArly twentieth century 203 notes 211 works cited 225 index 241 PPOOCCHHMMAARRAA NNaaddiirr FFNNLLpppp..iinndddd 66 11//88//2211 1100::2288 AAMM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i i i As with any academic project, this book could not have been written with- out assistance and encouragement from many people and institutions. I thank my friends and colleagues from the Institute of English Studies at my home university and from the Polish Association for American Stud- ies for their continuing intellectual and emotional support. I am grateful in particular to Agnieszka Graff, Filip Lipiński, Zuzanna Ładyga, Ewa Łuczak, Łukasz Muniowski, Marek Paryż, Justyna Wierzchowska, Justyna Włodarczyk, and Joanna Ziarkowska. I also owe thanks to my friends and colleagues from the CAAR (Collegium for African American Research). I would especially like to thank M. Giulia Fabi, Tess Chakkalal, and Hanna Wallinger, who have encouraged and supported my interest in and research of the Nadir era and have generously shared their own expertise in the field. I’m truly grateful to P. Gabrielle Foreman and Hazel V. Carby, whose work has been an inspiration for my own writing, for their words of support and encouragement. I am indebted to Gene Jarrett for his help with archi- val sources on Paul Laurence Dunbar. I also consulted the Livesey Collec- tion at the University of Central Lancashire, and I owe gratitude to Anne- marie McAllister, the head of the Demon Drink: Picturing Temperance project, and to Bob Frost from the Special Collections & University Ar- chives. For the help with my research of casta paintings, I thank Irma Mén- dez from the Museo de Historia Mexicana, Monterrey. A large part of this book was written during a residency at the Konvent art center in Cal Ro- sal, Spain, and I am deeply thankful to the local organizers for their warm welcome and to Alejandro Dorda, who initiated the 2018 residency project, PPOOCCHHMMAARRAA NNaaddiirr FFNNLLpppp..iinndddd 77 11//88//2211 1100::2288 AAMM viii Acknowledgments as well as to the remaining fifty participants of the program, whose creative energy, intellectual stimulation, and kindness helped me finish. The book would take longer to write without help from my parents and my parents- in-law, to whom I am grateful for their understanding and financial support in cases of emergency and, primarily, for the time they lovingly devoted to taking care of my daughter when I was occupied with work. Finally, for his unswerving support and understanding, I thank my husband, Paweł Ryżko. Earlier versions of parts of this study appeared as follows: “Enslavement to Philanthropy, Freedom from Heredity: Amelia E. John- son’s and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Uses and Misuses of Sentimental- ism and Naturalism,” Polish Journal for American Studies, vol. 12, 2018, pp. 113–128. “Tropes of Temperance, Specters of Naturalism: Amelia E. Johnson’s Clarence and Corinne,” Atlantis: Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies, vol. 38, no. 2, 2018, pp. 45–62. “Like Mother Like Daughter? Matrilineal Opposition in African Amer- ican Mulatta Melodrama,” Anglica: An International Journal of English Studies, vol. 26, no. 1, 2017, pp. 165–192. “Failed Patriarchs, Familial Villains, and Slaves to Rum: White Mascu- linity on Trial in African American Mulatta Melodrama,” NJES: Nor- dic Journal of English Studies, vol. 15, no. 4, 2016, pp. 208–235. PPOOCCHHMMAARRAA NNaaddiirr FFNNLLpppp..iinndddd 88 11//88//2211 1100::2288 AAMM THE NADIR & THE ZENITH •q PPOOCCHHMMAARRAA NNaaddiirr FFNNLLpppp..iinndddd 99 11//88//2211 1100::2288 AAMM
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