Dangerous Giving in Nineteenth-Century American Literature

Alexandra Urakova holds a title of docent in North American Studies at the University of Helsinki and is a Kone Foundation research fellow at the University of Tampere, Finland (2021-2024). Her research interests include nineteenth-century American literature, social and cultural history, and anthropology.

• 1 Introduction.- 2 Gifts, Language, Ideology, and the Sentimental.- 3 Sentimental “Potlatch” and the Making of the Nation.- 4 Un-Gendering the Gift Book.- 5 Racial Identity and the Perils of Giving.- 6 The Poison of the Gift, The Race of the Gift.- 7 Pure Tokens and Venomous Bodies.- 8 The Gift/Gifts of Death.- 9 “The Season of Gifts”: Christmas and Melancholia.- 10 Conclusion.