Sacred geographies: Religion, race, and the Holy Land in U.S. literature, 1819--1920

dc.contributor.advisorLevander, Caroline Fielden_US
dc.creatorRobey, Molly K.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2011-07-25T01:38:08Zen_US
dc.date.available2011-07-25T01:38:08Zen_US
dc.date.issued2009en_US
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation explores how representations of the Holy Land shaped nineteenth-century Americans' conceptions of racial identity in the emerging United States. In the nineteenth century, Americans physically encountered Palestine for the first time, exploring, mapping, and essentially inventing the Holy Land during a century of U.S. nation-building, expansion, and imperialism. "Sacred Geographies" reveals how the Holy Land provided a durable and fertile resource for writers wrestling with the place of race in the burgeoning nation. Analyzing a variety of "national" writings, including frontier romances, Gothic tales, slave narratives, and domestic novels, I demonstrate U.S. writers' engagement with a rapidly growing Holy Land industry. Attention to this often overlooked fascination with the Holy Land highlights the interdependence of racial and religious histories in U.S. culture. By examining the Holy Land's fundamental impact on U.S. perceptions of racial and national belonging, "Sacred Geographies" exposes the flexibility of the racial categories used to constitute U.S. culture, and it demonstrates the vital role religious identity played in the development of U.S. racial ideologies.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.callnoTHESIS ENGL. 2009 ROBEYen_US
dc.identifier.citationRobey, Molly K.. "Sacred geographies: Religion, race, and the Holy Land in U.S. literature, 1819--1920." (2009) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/61800">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/61800</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/61800en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectReligionen_US
dc.subjectMiddle Eastern historyen_US
dc.subjectAmerican literatureen_US
dc.titleSacred geographies: Religion, race, and the Holy Land in U.S. literature, 1819--1920en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentEnglishen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineHumanitiesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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