The science of sacrifice
Subtitle: American literature and modern social theory
By: Susan L. Mizruchi.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Princeton, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 436
Subjects: American literature -- History and criticism.; Sacrifice in literature.; Literature and anthropology -- United States.; Literature and society -- United States.; Rites and ceremonies in literature.; Human sacrifice in literature.; Self-sacrifice in literature.; Social problems in literature.; Scapegoat in literature.; Realism in literature.
Description: From ritual killings to subtle acts of self-denial, the practice and rhetoric of sacrifice has a special centrality in modern American literature. In a compelling interdisciplinary investigation, Susan Mizruchi portrays an episode in American cultural history when the literary movement of realism and the fledgling field of sociology both converged in the belief that sacrifice is basic to sociality.

This is a book about the fascination that sacrifice held for writers - principally, Herman Melville, Henry James, and W. E. B. Du Bois - and also for those who articulated the main tenets of modern social theory, an inquiry that eventually spans historical events such as public lynchings and the political scapegoating of immigrants a century ago.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 371-426) and index.