When travelers swarm forth: antebellum urban aesthetics and the contours of the political -- In 'the thick of the stream': Henry James and the public sphere -- A 'gorgeous neutrality': social justice and Stephen Crane's documentary anaesthetics -- Vicious gregariousness: white city, the nation form, and the souls of lynched folk -- A 'moving mosaic': Harlem, primitivism, and Nella Larsen's Quicksand -- Breaking the waves: mass immigration, trauma, and ethno-political consciousness in Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth
Summary
Esteve examines crowd representations in American literature from the antebellum era to the early twentieth century. As a central icon of political and cultural democracy, the crowd occupies a prominent place in the American literary and cultural landscape. Esteve analyses the aesthetic and political meanings of such urban crowd scenes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-255) and index
