Asylums, aliens, and disabilities in Charles Brockden Brown???s gothic novels

Thesis (M.A., English (Literature))--California State University, Sacramento, 2014.This thesis focuses on Charles Brockden Brown???s ambiguous use of disabilities in an attempt to understand Brown???s stance on the Early Republic???s nativist debates. While Brown???s representations of disabilities mimic the tropes of nativist politico-medical rhetoric, they also push readers into identifying with flawed characters and questioning nativist intolerance. Brown debunks the simplistic worldview of the nativists, leading his readers into considering that they might already be degenerated physically and mentally, that we cannot separate ourselves from the Other, and that refusing to accept human imperfection means creating a society of unattainable norms. Thus, ambiguity is central to Brown???s work: he deconstructs all the binaries he sets up to give us a radical depiction of the Early Republic as complex, imperfect, and diverse.English (Literature