Front cover image for A question of character : scientific racism and the genres of American fiction, 1892-1912

A question of character : scientific racism and the genres of American fiction, 1892-1912

"In A Question of Character, Cathy Boeckmann establishes a strong link between racial questions and the development of literary traditions at the end of the 19th century in America. This period saw the rise of "scientific racism," which claimed that the races were distinguished not solely by exterior appearance but also by a set of inherited character traits. As Boeckmann explains, this emphasis on character meant that race was not only a thematic concern in the literature of the period but also a generic or formal one as well." "Boeckmann explores the intersections between race and literary history by tracing the language of character through both scientific and literary writing."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2000
University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2000
Criticism, interpretation, etc
viii, 238 pages ; 24 cm.
9780817310219, 9780817352974, 0817310215, 081735297X
42022208
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Scientific racism, character, and American fiction
Thomas Dixon and the rhetorical mulatto
Pudd'nhead Wilson's phrenological photograph
Howells and Chesnutt: the racial uses of genre
Character and black art in The autobiography of an ex-Coloured man
Epilogue: race and representation
Notes
Works cited
Index