Under the Government of Sympathy: Senti­ mental History in Catharine Maria Sedgwick's Hope Leslie; or, Ear/y Times in the Massachusetts

Abstract

There has been an ongoing debate about the meaning and significance of sympathy in nineteenth-century American literary culture, about its role in the public sphere and its function in the reproduction of social relations. Catharine Maria Sedgwick's Hope Leslie; or, Early Times in the Massachusetts (1827) is set in the aftermath of the 1637 genocidal war between the Puritan colony in Massachusetts and the Pequots. In this study I explore how a frontier romance raises questions about the role of sympathy in the narration of traumatic histories. I argue that Sedgwick seeks to find in the rhetoric of sympathy a means of imagining a reconciliation between the Puritans and the Pequots, and then also of reconfiguring the relation between the United States and the American Indian in antebellum America. At the same time her text self-reflexively interrogates the efficacy of sympathetic strategies to reconcile these communities. Hope Leslie emerges from this as a text that examines the curative potential of sympathy in the public sphere.

Opsomming
Die belang en betekenis van meegevoel in die negentiende-eeuse Amerikaanse literere kultuur is die onderwerp van 'n voortdurende debat. Oor die rol van meegevoel in die publieke sfeer asook die funksie daarvan in die handhawing van sosiale verhoudings bestaan meningsverskil. Catharine Maria Sedgwick se Hope Leslie; or. Early Times in the Massachusetts (1827) handel oor 'n liefdesverhouding na die bloedige oorlog van 1637 tussen die Puriteinse Kolonie in Massachusetts en 'n lndiaanse stam, die Pequots. In hierdie artikel verken ek hoe hierdie teks aanleiding gee tot vrae oor die rol van meegevoel in die vertelling van traumatiese geskiedenisse. Ek voer aan dat Sedgwick deur simpatieretoriek poog om haar voor te stel dat versoening tussen die Puriteine en die Pequots moontlik is. Sy poog ook om die vooroorlogse betrekkinge tussen die Verenigde State en die Amerikaanse lndiane deur simpatieretoriek te hervorm. T erselfdertyd besin die teks oor die bydrae wat simpatiestrategiee tot versoening tussen hierdie gemeenskappe !ewer. Hope Leslie wys in hierdie studie sy waarde as 'n teks wat die helende uitwerking van meegevoel in die publieke steer ondersoek.