Fever Reading: Affect and Reading Badly in the Early American Public Sphere (Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-Century Studies (Hardcover))

“Lively and plausible, is Milner’s reflection on ‘de-emotionalizing embodiment’ in obscene print. His proposal that ‘the object of identification in celebrity worship is not a particular person but the public sphere itself’ is suggestive. . . . As researchers pull these claims into conversation with projects by scholars of reception such as it is, they are sure to enjoy the provocations Milner’s work offers.”– “The Historian”

“Lucidly argued and elegantly written, Fever Reading makes a case for a public sphere of embodiment and emotion, what Millner occasionally calls “a public sensorium.” But rather than seeing this as an alternative to the realm of discursive communication and rational judgment, Millner sees embodiment as enabling precisely the kinds of critical practices–reflection, evaluation, judgment–that public sphere proponents embrace.”– “Amerikastudiemerican Studies”

“Millner examines the moral panic and paranoia associated with what was known as reading badly. Millner argues that considering emotional responses to texts, especially when using the new models for determining what emotion is and does, could change the way reading and readers are understood.”– “American Literature to 1900”