The Politics of Sensibility Race, Gender and Commerce in the Sentimental Novel [Paperback]

Explores the participation of the sentimental novel in political controversies of the late eighteenth century.The sentimental novel has long been noted for its liberal and humanitarian interests; in The Politics of Sensibility Markman Ellis argues that sentimental fiction also consciously participated in specific political controversies of the late eighteenth century, including emerging arguments about the ethics of slavery, the morality of commerce, and the movement to reform prostitutes. He shows that sentimental fiction was a public as well as a private genre, and that the very form of the novel was recognised as a political tool of cultural significance.The sentimental novel has long been noted for its liberal and humanitarian interests; in The Politics of Sensibility Markman Ellis argues that sentimental fiction also consciously participated in specific political controversies of the late eighteenth century, including emerging arguments about the ethics of slavery, the morality of commerce, and the movement to reform prostitutes. He shows that sentimental fiction was a public as well as a private genre, and that the very form of the novel was recognised as a political tool of cultural significance.The sentimental novel has long been noted for its liberal and humanitarian interests. In The Politics of Sensibility Markman Ellis argues that sentimental fiction also consciously participated in specific political controversies of the late eighteenth century, including emerging arguments about the ethics of slavery, the morality of commerce, and the movement to reform prostitutes. He shows that sentimental fiction was a public as well as a private genre, and that the very form of the novel was recognized as a political tool of cultural significance.1. Sensibility, history and the novel; 2. 'The house of bondage': sentimentalism and the problem of slavery; 3. 'Delight in misery': sentimentalism, amelioration and slavery; 4. 'An easy, speedy and universal medium': canalÓt