Panic Fiction

Women and Antebellum Economic Crisis

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American
Cover of the book Panic Fiction by Mary Templin, University of Alabama Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mary Templin ISBN: 9780817387198
Publisher: University of Alabama Press Publication: February 28, 2014
Imprint: University Alabama Press Language: English
Author: Mary Templin
ISBN: 9780817387198
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Publication: February 28, 2014
Imprint: University Alabama Press
Language: English

Panic Fiction explores a unique body of antebellum American women’s writing that illuminates women’s relationships to the marketplace and the links between developing ideologies of domesticity and the formation of an American middle class.

Between the mid-1830s and the late 1850s, authors such as Hannah Lee, Catharine Sedgwick, Eliza Follen, Maria McIntosh, and Maria Cummins wrote dozens of novels and stories depicting the effects of financial panic on the home and proposing solutions to economic instability. This unique body of antebellum American women’s writing, which integrated economic discourse with the language and conventions of domestic fiction, is what critic Mary Templin terms “panic fiction.”

In Panic Fiction: Antebellum Women Writers and Economic Crisis, Templin draws in part from the methods of New Historicism and cultural studies, situating these authors and their texts within the historical and cultural contexts of their time. She explores events surrounding the panics of 1837 and 1857, prevalent attitudes toward speculation and failure as seen in newspapers and other contemporaneous texts, women’s relationships to the marketplace, and the connections between domestic ideology and middle-class formation.

Although largely unknown today, the phenomena of “panic fiction” was extremely popular in its time and had an enormous influence on nineteenth-century popular conceptions of speculation, failure, and the need for marketplace reform, providing a distinct counterpoint to the analysis of panic found in newspapers, public speeches, and male-authored literary texts of the time.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Panic Fiction explores a unique body of antebellum American women’s writing that illuminates women’s relationships to the marketplace and the links between developing ideologies of domesticity and the formation of an American middle class.

Between the mid-1830s and the late 1850s, authors such as Hannah Lee, Catharine Sedgwick, Eliza Follen, Maria McIntosh, and Maria Cummins wrote dozens of novels and stories depicting the effects of financial panic on the home and proposing solutions to economic instability. This unique body of antebellum American women’s writing, which integrated economic discourse with the language and conventions of domestic fiction, is what critic Mary Templin terms “panic fiction.”

In Panic Fiction: Antebellum Women Writers and Economic Crisis, Templin draws in part from the methods of New Historicism and cultural studies, situating these authors and their texts within the historical and cultural contexts of their time. She explores events surrounding the panics of 1837 and 1857, prevalent attitudes toward speculation and failure as seen in newspapers and other contemporaneous texts, women’s relationships to the marketplace, and the connections between domestic ideology and middle-class formation.

Although largely unknown today, the phenomena of “panic fiction” was extremely popular in its time and had an enormous influence on nineteenth-century popular conceptions of speculation, failure, and the need for marketplace reform, providing a distinct counterpoint to the analysis of panic found in newspapers, public speeches, and male-authored literary texts of the time.

More books from University of Alabama Press

Cover of the book Theatre Symposium, Vol. 23 by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Archaeology and Ancient Religion in the American Midcontinent by Mary Templin
Cover of the book The Life of Andrew Jackson by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Doctrine and Race by Mary Templin
Cover of the book The Size of the Universe by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Unity in Christ and Country by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Beleaguered Poets and Leftist Critics by Mary Templin
Cover of the book The Cracks Between What We Are and What We Are Supposed to Be by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Ecoviews by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Ceramics, Chronology, and Community Patterns by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Elite Oral History Discourse by Mary Templin
Cover of the book To the Boathouse by Mary Templin
Cover of the book The Commerce of Louisiana During the French Regime, 1699-1763 by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Of Such a Nature/Índole by Mary Templin
Cover of the book Militant Zionism in America by Mary Templin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy