"I put my fingers around my throat and squeezed it, to know how it feels": Antigallows Sentimentalism and E. D. E. N. Southworth's The Hidden Hand

A handful of studies have considered individual authors' interest in the subject, but the only scholar to have investigated the larger literary engagement with this movement is historian David Brion Davis.1 His description of the period's handling of capital punishment approaches what cont...

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Published inLegacy (Amherst, Mass.) Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 41 - 61
Main Author JONES, PAUL CHRISTIAN
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Lincoln University of Nebraska Press 01.01.2008
Subjects
American literature
Capital punishment
Crime
Criminal justice
Criminals
Criticism and interpretation
Demonstrations and protests
Eternal condemnation
Governors
Hands
Legacies
Murder
Murderers
Portrayals
Reinforcement
Sentimental novels
Sentimentality
Soul
Southworth, E.D.E.N
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte (1819-1899)
State government
Sympathy
Women authors
Women novelists
Works
United States
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0748-4321
1534-0643
1534-0643
DOI10.1353/leg.0.0008

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Summary:A handful of studies have considered individual authors' interest in the subject, but the only scholar to have investigated the larger literary engagement with this movement is historian David Brion Davis.1 His description of the period's handling of capital punishment approaches what contemporary scholars label sentimentalism, although Davis himself does not use the term.2 For example, he claims that these writers yearned for an emotional and pietistic brotherhood, for an allinclusive love which would embrace the wayward murderer as well as the suffering slave and degraded drunkard, and pursued this aim by arous[ing]..
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0748-4321
1534-0643
1534-0643
DOI:10.1353/leg.0.0008