The Spectacle of Death: Populist Literary Responses to American Capital Cases

Boudreau (English, U. of Georgia) reveals the close connection between executions, the sentiments of ordinary people, and popular literature, from the emergence of gallows literature in the American colonies and the unruly political effects in could have on readers, to the outpouring of sympathy for confessed murderer Karla Faye Tucker at her 1998 execution. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kristin Boudreau is associate professor of English at the University of Georgia and the author of Sympathy in American Literature: American Sentiments from Jefferson to the Jameses.