Sanctify Our Suffering World with Tears: Transamerican Sentimentalism in Joaquín MurietaJournal Article
Overview
abstract
Abstract; This essay explores the often-overlooked affective discourse that emerges from a close reading of the Mexican and European American women in the first Native American novel, John Rollin Ridge's sensational dime novel The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit (1854). Through their investment in sentimental tropes such as the tearful scene, the angelic figure, and the untimely fainting fit, these women enact what I term a transamerican sentimental diplomacy that counters the attempt of the novel's men to define the United States via a nationalistic violence (the legacy of the U.S.-Mexican War). Through their tears, pleas, and actions, the women test the cultural and political milieu of the newly minted state of California. While the women's promotion of a peaceful paradigm for borderland interaction ultimately falls short, its undeniable presence is an important counterweight to the sensational violence in Joaquín Murieta that has thus far captivated critics.
