Philadelphia Stories: America's Literature of Race and Freedom

A historic and symbolic city on the border between slavery and freedom, Philadelphia was seen as the stage on which racial character would be tested and a possible post-slavery future played out. Philadelphia Stories argues that this cosmopolitan setting produced a novel, and enduring, literary tradition in which verbal performance and social behavior assumed the weight of race and nation. With bold and commanding analyses, Otter delivers a sophisticated argument that establishes Philadelphia as a cornerstone of American literary history.