Simon Morgan discusses the tensions within the transatlantic anti-slavery movement between literary celebrity and moral responsibility.
Between Morality and the Marketplace: Literary Celebrity and the Transatlantic Anti-Slavery Movement
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Simon Morgan (Leeds Beckett University) examines these tensions through the contrasting cases of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe: the former trying to use his status as an ex-slave and anti-slavery orator to promote himself as an author, the latter using her status as international literary celebrity to claim authority as a spokeswoman against slavery. For both literature was an avenue through which they could intervene effectively in political debate and construct their public personae.
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In line with a long literary tradition of the artist as propagandist, who strives to appeal to the political, moral, and social conscience of his/her readership, writers have persistently crossed the divide between art and politics both in their works and in their roles as public intellectuals, cultural critics, and political activists. Moreover, established authors have, with striking regularity, taken advantage of their celebrity status in order to draw attention to specific socio-...
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