Introduction: Sentimentalism, capitalist modernity, colonial slavery -- Spectacle, spectatorship, sympathy : Aphra Behn's Oroonoko and the English commercial empire -- Yarico's complaint : the female slave in the eighteenth-century public sphere -- English subjects, African slaves : Laurence Sterne and the politics of punishment -- Reforming labor discipline : slave culture and sentimental fiction -- "A fixed melancholy" : memories of migration in Atlantic slavery -- Filiation to affiliation : kinship and sentiment in Olaudah Equiano's interesting narrative -- Epilogue: The problem of slavery, the problem of freedom.
Summary
"An extended analysis of the intersections between the institutional contexts of slavery and the affective structures of sentiment, Spectacular Suffering considers not only how the enslaved subject is constructed, but also how slaves responded to and registered their experiences, creating a measure of autonomy even under the conditions of slavery"--Provided by publisher.
