Digital Commons Network^™

American Shudders: Race, Representation, And Sodomy In Redburn, David Greven

Faculty Publications

Newer critical treatments of Redburn argue that its significance lies in its critique of antebellum slavery, most saliently in chapter 31, in which Wellingborough Redburn, the first-person narrator, offers an ekphrastic depiction of the Nelson Monument in Liverpool, England. This monument contains an especially significant detail: the four naked, chained male figures at the base of the pedestal. Redburn tells us that he can never look at their “swarthy limbs and manacles, without being involuntarily reminded of four African slaves in the market-place.” The abjection of the figures is significant for understanding not only issues of race and slavery but …