University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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

Bechtold, Rebeccah

Content Files
Bechtold_Rebeccah.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/34575

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
Date of Ingest
2012-09-18T21:26:15Z
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
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/34575
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2012 Rebeccah Bechtold

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