Fanny Fern's 1855 Ruth Hall, the cheerful brutality of capitalism, & the irony of sentimental rhetoric

Abstract

In order to reconstruct the historical, rhetorical, and political implications of Fanny Fern's 1855 sentimental novel, Ruth Hall, this essay engages in three critical maneuvers. First, as a means of situating Fern both in and against contemporary scholarly views of sentimentalism, the essay addresses arguments offered by Edwin Black and Stephen Browne. Second, as a means of expanding our understanding of sentimentalism, it reconstructs both the elite intellectual and mass cultural foregrounds to sentimental rhetoric. Third, it argues that although Fern's prose is sentimental in places, the novel as a whole is dialectical, ironic, and politically savvy. By reconsidering the nuances of sentimental rhetoric the essay expands our means of addressing political persuasion in antebellum America.