Table of Contents

J. Gerald Kennedy and Liliane Weissberg: Introduction: Poe, Race, and Contemporary Criticism
1: Terence Whalen: Average Racism: Poe, Slavery, and the Wages of Literary Nationalism
2: Betsy Erkkila: The Poetics of Whiteness: Poe and the Racial Imaginary
3: John Carlos Rowe: Edgar Allan Poe's Imperial Fantasy and the American Frontier
4: Joan Dayan: Poe, Persons, and Property
5: Liliane Weissberg: Black, White, and Gold
6: Lindon Barrett: Presence of Mind: Detection and Racialization in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
7: Elise Lemire: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue": Amalgamation Discourses and the Race Riots of 1838 in Poe's Philadelphia
8: Leland Person: Poe's Philosophy of Amalgamation: Reading Racism in the Tales
9: J. Gerald Kennedy: "Trust No Man": Poe, Douglass, and the Culture of Slavery
Bibliography

Reviews

"The ideas presented in Romancing the Shadow...stand as important additions to the field of Poe studies."--American Studies International
"With nine varied essays, Romancing the Shadow addresses provocatively the vexed topic of Poe and race. With attention to both text and context, the authors of these essays elaborate a range of responses to the subject matter, ably demonstrating the validity of Toni Morrison's view that 'no early American writer is more important to the concept of American Africanism than Poe.'"--Richard Kopley, Pennsylvania State University, DuBois
"The essays included in this volume treat this subject with a variety of historical and theoretical approaches, and no two essays reach the same conclusion. It is a fascinating exercise in professional, critical dialogue, and readers of the volume will learn much. What they will learn will not just concern Poe. The essays in Romancing the Shadow raise provocative questions for American literary studies more generally, questions that go to the heart of
our previous and present practice."--Dana Nelson, University of Kentucky
"The ideas presented in Romancing the Shadow...stand as important additions to the field of Poe studies."--American Studies International