Susanna Rowson: Sentimental Prophet of Early American Literature opens the early American writer s works to new, provocative interpretations based on the theory that her responses to social issues incorporate notions of righteousness, justice, accountability, and loyalty drawn from prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Steven Epley argues that Rowson s sentimentalism a literary mode that portrays characters undergoing strong emotions and evokes similar responses from readers reflects the rhetorical style of the Bible s first prophet, Moses, and its understanding of the heart not just as a...

Susanna Rowson: Sentimental Prophet of Early American Literature opens the early American writer s works to new, provocative interpretations based on the theory that her responses to social issues incorporate notions of righteousness, justice, accountability, and loyalty drawn from prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Steven Epley argues that Rowson s sentimentalism a literary mode that portrays characters undergoing strong emotions and evokes similar responses from readers reflects the rhetorical style of the Bible s first prophet, Moses, and its understanding of the heart not just as a...