Composing the body: narrative in the age of improvisation, 1770-1867

Bechtold, Rebeccah

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Description

Title

Composing the body: narrative in the age of improvisation, 1770-1867

Author(s)

Bechtold, Rebeccah

Issue Date

2012-09-18T21:26:15Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Loughran, Patricia

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Loughran, Patricia

Committee Member(s)

• Murison, Justine
• Chai, Leon
• Wood, Gillen

Department of Study

English

Discipline

English

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• American literature
• Sentimentality
• Music

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes how antebellum authors appropriated music—as bodily sentiment, scientific theory, and performative practice—to negotiate the social tensions that afflicted nineteenth century American culture. Drawing on a diverse archive of primary materials, I argue that music’s development into an improvisational aesthetic inspired sentimental authors to integrate musical form and theory into their compositional practices in ways that allowed them to explore the limits and freedoms of feeling. Pro-slavery southerners like Caroline Lee Hentz and Augusta Evans recognized a resemblance between European improvisation and the formless melodies of slave songs, forcing them to try to distinguish a white, sentimental musicality from “the wild, sad strains” of the slave. But other authors, including Herman Melville and Lydia Maria Child, took up the intersection of white and black musicality to recommend a new form of sympathetic listening, thereby challenging the nation’s dominate attitudes toward race.

Graduation Semester

2012-08

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Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2012 Rebeccah Bechtold

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