Christen Mucher | Smith College (original) (raw)

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Papers by Christen Mucher

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs

Apocalypse in American Literature and Culture

Before American History examines the project of settler nationalism from the 1780s to the 1840s i... more Before American History examines the project of settler nationalism from the 1780s to the 1840s in two of North America’s republics—the US and Mexico—through an analysis of historical knowledge production. As the US and Mexico transformed from European colonies into independent republics—and before war scarred them both—antiquarians and historians compiled and interpreted archives meant to document America’s Indigenous pasts. Before American History approaches two iconic imaginings of the past—the carved Sun Stone and the mounded earthwork—as archives of nationalist power and Indigenous dispossession as well as objects that are, at their material base, Indigenously-produced but settler-controlled and settler-interpreted. In making the connection between earthworks built by an allegedly vanished people merely peripheral to US citizens and the literal touchstone of Mexicans’ history, Before American History details how Mexican and US nationalists created national histories out of Indi...

American Literary History, 2022

Journal of Transnational American Studies, 2018

interesting and instructive places of amusement which can be visited." 3 But on the morning of Ju... more interesting and instructive places of amusement which can be visited." 3 But on the morning of July 30, 1842, it was clear that the destruction was total: Catherwood's famous panoramas were lost, and with them a new attraction as yet unexhibited, described by Mayor Philip Hone as "a large collection of curiosities and relicks, sketches and other precious things collected by Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood in their recent travels in Central America." 4 During their "travels in Central America" from 1839 to 1841, US writer and diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and his associate Catherwood sent sculptures and other artifacts to the Panorama for storage, awaiting transformation from mere "curiosities and relicks" into a spectacular "museum of American antiquities." Stephens planned to gather Indigenous objects-from North American "Indians," Central American Maya, Caribbean Caribs, South American Incas-into one publicly accessible location that would, much like the Panorama, give visitors access to the expansive sights of a world tour within the confines of a single building. The collection's individual parts would all add up to one "American" whole, housing statues from Copán (Honduras) and Quirigúa (Guatemala) alongside plaster casts made in Palenque (Chiapas) as well

<p>This essay argues that rhetorical and material gaps have limited scholars' ability t... more <p>This essay argues that rhetorical and material gaps have limited scholars' ability to see the connections between Atlantic slavery and the War of 1812, and it outlines these limits as created by contemporary conceptual changes in the meaning of trade, ideologies of neutrality and "free trade," as well as current-day nation-centered historiography and the problem of missing archival records. By turning to French shipping records, the essay outlines the difficulty of documenting contraband and illicit activities, and draws connections between neutrality disagreements, early nineteenth century U.S.-French commerce, slavery, and the War of 1812. The essay suggests that a better understanding of wartime trade agreements and the related issue of neutrality, more careful attention to the conceptual disaggregation of foreign from internal slave trade, and an awareness of the gaps in the archive are all necessary to challenge and amend the heretofore-isolated narratives of the Atlantic slave trade and the War of 1812.</p>

Journal of the Early Republic, 2021

The Haiti Reader, 2020

Link to English translation of Haiti's first novel

Reviews in American History, 2017

American Literature, 2014

This dissertation traces the ways in which history was imagined in the 18th and 19th centuries in... more This dissertation traces the ways in which history was imagined in the 18th and 19th centuries in the New World. By looking at non-professional history writers of the period—such as poets, fiction writers, linguists, politicians, and especially explorer/archaeologists—I have found that the past has been imagined and organized in no one way, and that the turn to archaeological and other material objects from the past consistently exerted power over the development of different ways for creating historical narratives. My main claim is that the belief objects tell stories and provide unparalleled access to the past can be tracked to the national and imperial ambitions of creoles in the newly independent New World nations. While refuting European claims that, before colonization, there was no history in the New World, these new stories of the past from America\u27s buried or ruined objects insisted that the past Europeans couldn\u27t see was, in fact, very old and left by peoples long gone. This move cleared the imaginative space for new American citizens to set themselves apart from former colonial centers, but also, assisted in the various practices of extermination and denigration that eventually proved that only objects, not people, provided access to history. My secondary claim is that these practices of reading objects for history, and using them to construct and define different cultures, have persisted into 20th- and 21st-century material and cultural studies, and are thus still employing a centuries-old imperialist logic that ultimately reinforces uneven structures of power.