Literary Transmigration
George Eliot, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the Spirit of Transatlantic Exchange
abstract
Reading several letters from the eleven-year correspondence alongside Dred and Daniel Deronda, this paper argues that the model of transatlantic spiritual communication presented by Stowe and Eliot’s epistolary friendship takes on a new and potentially radical light when applied to the concept of a transnational and post racial spiritual community. Each text fundamentally challenges the ability of the realist novel to depict a nuanced understanding of racial identity through the use of spiritualist and religious discourse and imagery.
Keywords: Harriet Beecher Stowe • Spiritualism • George Eliot • Transatlantic literature • Mysticism