The Novelist as Organic Intellectual
William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy , Reconsidered
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9595686 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Lawrimore (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 695-721 |
| Publication date | 2016-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Literature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9831 • E-ISSN: 1527-2117 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00029831-3711090 |
| OpenAlex | W2562357440 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 45 |
Scholars of material and print culture have recently challenged the theory of an early American public sphere, arguing that the literary landscape of eighteenth-century America was composed instead of fragmented publics, local networks frequently partisan in nature. This essay theorizes how the novel genre functions within these publics by reconsidering the literary career of William Hill Brown, best known as the author of The Power of Sympathy (1789). Reading his lesser-known writings, I argue that Brown was an intellectual for a prominent network—often referred to as the natural aristocracy—and saw the novel genre as a means to disperse his network’s ideology to a growing novel-reading audience. I conclude by reevaluating The Power of Sympathy in light of Brown’s commitment to the natural aristocracy, which provides a model for considering the novel genre within the framework of local publics rather than as part of a universal public sphere
Aesthetics · Aristocracy (class) · Art · Ideology · Literature · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Public sphere · Publics · Reading (process) · Sociology · Sympathy · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Revolution and the word
Prodigals and pilgrims
Declaring Independence
Love & death in the American novel
Sensational designs
Republic of Intellect
Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America
Printers and Men of Capital
The Antifederalist Papers
Voicing America
Women in Public
Letters of the Republic
The Transformation of Authorship in America
States of Sympathy
Sensational Designs
The First American Novel
Voicing America
The Atlantic Enlightenment
The Tyranny of Printers
Another Explanation for the Senate
Sentimental Bodies
Purebreds and Amazons
Libertine America
That Damned Mob of Scribbling Siblings
The Democratic Societies of Philadelphia and the Limits of the American Public Sphere, circa 1793-1795
Laboratories of Virtue
In Public Houses
Reason and Passion in the Public Sphere
The Plight of Feeling
Revolutionary Brotherhood
Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |