Writing for Justice: Victor Séjour, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, and the Age of Transatlantic Emancipations PDF
Preview Writing for Justice: Victor Séjour, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, and the Age of Transatlantic Emancipations
American Studies/European History Elèna mortara elèna mortar a “A masterful examination of what must be one of the most intriguing figures of mid-nineteenth-century American literature, Writing for Justice reflects a refreshing transnational turn in literary study.” – David I. Kertzer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Pope and Mussolini and The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara w “While there are studies of the Edgardo Mortara case, a biography of Victor Séjour, and histories of the antislavery movements and of the battle for Jewish emancipation in Europe r and the Americas, this outstanding book interweaves all these strands successfully into a freshly researched single work.” – Werner Sollors, Harvard University i t “A brilliant book … Elèna Mortara has managed to enhance a haunted family history by i devising a fascinating detective story as well.” – Stephen Whitfield, Brandeis University n Transnational battles for freedom and g a personal work of remembrance f In Writing for Justice, Elèna Mortara presents a richly layered study of the cultural and o intellectual atmosphere of mid-nineteenth-century Europe and the United States, through close readings of the life and work of Victor Séjour, an expatriate American Creole from r New Orleans living in Paris. In addition to writing “The Mulatto,” an early story on slavery in Saint-Domingue, Séjour penned La Tireuse de cartes (The Fortune-Teller, 1859), a popular play based on the famed Mortara case. In this historical incident, Pope Pius IX arranged to j kidnap Edgardo Mortara, the child of a Jewish family living in the Papal States. The details of u the play’s production – and its reception on both sides of the Atlantic – are intertwined with s the events of the Italian Risorgimento and of pre-Civil War America. t Writing for Justice is full of surprising encounters with i French and American writers and historical figures, c writing including Hugo, Hawthorne, Twain, Napoleon III, Garibaldi, and Lincoln. As Elèna Mortara e passionately argues, the enormous amount of public attention generated by the case reveals an era of underappreciated transatlantic intellectual exchange, in which an African American writer discussed for justice oEV niando vAtaiomnnceisrn iogcf a a ectmoro atshns acttih poea ftc iJooenwnt siin nien rn eEtl.iugrioopues, aans dw teoll tahse r alacrigael rt ebramttlse, sl ifnokri nfrge etdhoem p laignhdt noaft ibolnachkoso d f Transatladgardo Mictor Séjo nou Elèna Mortara is a professor of American literature at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. tic Emanrtara, andr, the Kid Victor Séjour, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, DRHeaa-nMrovtaepmrp, inNogue twhte h HT raCamnsopnsalhtliieornega el: A P Draertsmsouth Series in American Studies cipations the Age napping of and the Age of Transatlantic Emancipations Cover illustration: Private collection. Dartmouth Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s mortara_age_of_emancipations_mech_ƒ.indd 1 2015-07-15 11:23 AM writing for justice re- mapping the transnational A Dartmouth Series in American Studies series editor Donald E. Pease Avalon Foundation Chair of Humanities Founding Director of the Futures of American Studies Institute Dartmouth College The emergence of Transnational American Studies in the wake of the Cold War marks the most signifi cant reconfi guration of American Studies since its inception. The shock waves generated by a newly globalized world order demanded an un- derstanding of Ame rica’s embeddedness within global and local proc esses rather than scholarly reaffi rmations of its splendid isolation. The series Re-M apping the Transnational seeks to foster the cross- national dialogues needed to sustain the vitality of this emergent fi eld. To advance a truly comparativist understanding of this scholarly endeavor, Dartmouth College Press welcomes monographs from scholars both inside and outside the United States. For a complete list of books available in this series, see www. upne . com. Elèna Mortara, Writing for Justice: Victor Séjour, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mor- tara, and the Age of Transatlantic Emancipations Rob Kroes, Prison Area, In de pen dence Valley: American Paradoxes in Po liti cal Life and Pop u lar Culture Etsuko Taketani, The Black Pacifi c Narrative: Geographic Imaginings of Race and Empire between the World Wars William V. Spanos, Shock and Awe: American Exceptionalism and the Imperatives of the Spectacle in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Laura Bieger, Ramón Saldívar, and Johannes Voelz, editors, The Imaginary and Its Worlds: American Studies after the Transnational Turn Paul A. Bové, A More Conservative Place: Intellectual Culture in the Bush Era John Muthyala, Dwelling in American: Dissent, Empire, and Globalization Winfried Fluck, Donald E. Pease, and John Carlos Rowe, editors, Re- Framing the Transnational Turn in American Studies Lene M. Johannessen, Horizons of Enchantment: Essays in the American Imaginary elèna mortara writing for justice Victor Séjour, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, and the Age of Transatlantic Emancipations dartmouth college press hanover, new hampshire Dartmouth College Press An imprint of University Press of New England www. upne . com © 2015 Elèna Mortara All rights reserved For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book, contact Permissions, University Press of New E ngland, One Court Street, Suite 250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www . upne . com Frontispiece: Drawing of Victor Séjour by Étienne Carjat, engraved by Alexandre Pothey, from Diogène, March 8, 1857, p. 3. Cliché Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-61168-789-7 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-61168-790-3 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61168-791-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data available upon request In memoriam Momolo Mortara (1816–1871) Alberto Mortara (1909–1990)
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