On the Fence with Klein's Text: Does Sentimentality have any Redeeming Qualities?

Usually I would be the last person to complain about this…but in my opinion, Klein’s text is definitely under-theorized in regards to her analysis (or perhaps lack of analysis I should argue) on the construction of sentimental feeling by Washington and its sociological and cultural ramifications on the portrayal of people from Asia. Incorporating theory is absolutely crucial when you are dealing with social and cultural constructs, such as Orientalism. Unlike Klein, I do not believe that the sentimental construction of feeling can ever be seen as innocuous. On the contrary, if you study the dynamics of this construct, you would find that it was built on certain ideologies and preconceptions that promote racism, prejudice, and cultural hegemony.

Although there are several chapters to go, and Klein might be waiting until the very end to discuss this issue, I am still waiting for Klein to answer what I think is a very important question: What underlies this sentimental construction of feeling? The author spends way too much time in my opinion trying to redeem the sentimental construction of feeling and combating Said’s take on Orientalism. Klein states in her preface, “The pervasive sentimentalism of middlebrow depictions of Asia in the postwar period complicates their relation to Said’s model of Orientalism. Their sentimental insistence on bridging differences, in combination with their liberal disavowals of racial hierarchy, suggests a need to extend the definition of Orientalism beyond the confines that Said first established it” (15). Klein’s belief in the positivity of sentimentalism runs throughout the first two chapters, and she constantly talks about how great middlebrow culture was in addressing things such as internationalism, community, and interdependence. This, however, is not the full story of middlebrow culture and only scraps the surface. It would have been beneficial for Klein to go deeper to examine the ugliness of sentimentalism in her analysis.

What I know is at the very foundation of the sentimental construct of feeling makes me feel uncomfortable with the author’s attempt to show what it seems as positive outcomes of this construct in middlebrow culture. African-American writer James Baldwin wrote an excellent essay critiquing sentimental novels such as Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Baldwin argues that in texts such as these, the underlying premise is that blacks are backwards, primitive, and weak and need whites to be “redeemed”. Furthermore, only until the black individual is “cleansed” of their primitiveness, will whites no longer see them as being merely sub-human creatures. I want to argue that the sentimental construct of feeling created by Washington and perpetuated by middlebrow culture portrayed Asians in a similar light, as being a people who needed to be pitied because of their backwardness. This sort of pity did not allow Asians to be on an equal footing in their relationship with the United States and leads me to question Klein’s argument that middlebrow culture was able to promote a genuine feeling of commonality.