A table is an intersection, a crossroads, a convergence, a gathering. Imitating this spirit, my project explores the numerous ways the table has been set in American life and letters: from Herman Melville's reincarnated apple-tree table to dinners displaced by bodies on Eudora Welty's tables, from table expectations in nineteenth-century domestic manuals to deathway traditions repurposing those same tables, from cannibalistic inversions of the table to the communion table in Toni Morrison's Beloved. Life and death, food and body, consumption and communion - the table brings us to a place where object becomes symbol, where ordinary becomes extraordinary.
","abstract_html":"<p>A table is an intersection, a crossroads, a convergence, a gathering. Imitating this spirit, my project explores the numerous ways the table has been set in American life and letters: from Herman Melville's reincarnated apple-tree table to dinners displaced by bodies on Eudora Welty's tables, from table expectations in nineteenth-century domestic manuals to deathway traditions repurposing those same tables, from cannibalistic inversions of the table to the communion table in Toni Morrison's Beloved. Life and death, food and body, consumption and communion - the table brings us to a place where object becomes symbol, where ordinary becomes extraordinary.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Smith, Abigail Lundelius"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Campus Access Dissertation","degree_discipline":"English Language and Literatures","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["David S Shields"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2011-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:37:28Z","subjects":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature","American","Cultural","Literature","Material","Symbolic","Table"],"languages":[],"rights":["© 2011, Abigail Lundelius Smith"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1098","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["David S Shields"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Smith, Abigail Lundelius"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English Language and Literatures"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Campus Access Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature","American","Cultural","Literature","Material","Symbolic","Table"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© 2011, Abigail Lundelius Smith"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1098"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["A table is an intersection, a crossroads, a convergence, a gathering. Imitating this spirit, my project explores the numerous ways the table has been set in American life and letters: from Herman Melville's reincarnated apple-tree table to dinners displaced by bodies on Eudora Welty's tables, from table expectations in nineteenth-century domestic manuals to deathway traditions repurposing those same tables, from cannibalistic inversions of the table to the communion table in Toni Morrison's Beloved. Life and death, food and body, consumption and communion - the table brings us to a place where object becomes symbol, where ordinary becomes extraordinary.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Shall We Gather At the Table?: the Symbolic, Material, and Cultural Significance of the Table In American Life and Letters"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["David S Shields"],"dc:creator":["Smith, Abigail Lundelius"],"dc:description.abstract":["A table is an intersection, a crossroads, a convergence, a gathering. Imitating this spirit, my project explores the numerous ways the table has been set in American life and letters: from Herman Melville's reincarnated apple-tree table to dinners displaced by bodies on Eudora Welty's tables, from table expectations in nineteenth-century domestic manuals to deathway traditions repurposing those same tables, from cannibalistic inversions of the table to the communion table in Toni Morrison's Beloved. Life and death, food and body, consumption and communion - the table brings us to a place where object becomes symbol, where ordinary becomes extraordinary.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1098"],"dc:rights":["© 2011, Abigail Lundelius Smith"],"dc:subject":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature","American","Cultural","Literature","Material","Symbolic","Table"],"dc:title":["Shall We Gather At the Table?: the Symbolic, Material, and Cultural Significance of the Table In American Life and Letters"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English Language and Literatures"],"thesis:degree_level":["Campus Access Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:37:28Z"}