Consumptive Individualism and Burdens of Care in Nineteenth-Century American Literature

Abstract Discourses of race and ability intermingled in depictions of tuberculosis in nineteenth-century American literature. Literary depictions of the illness established racialized burdens of care while simultaneously articulating a liberal individualism that embraced, rather than eschewed, physical vulnerability and social dependency. Attending to texts that disentangle the disease from its racial and ableist logics articulates an ethics of reserving care for those living with the health consequences of white supremacy.