Sneidern 1995

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Sneidern, Maja-Lisa von. “Wuthering Heights and the Liverpool Slave Trade.” ELH 62.1 (1995): 171–196. Web. 26 March 2017.

  • 177: The economic nature of slavery greatly complicates the Marxist concept of commodity fetishism, which posits that interpersonal relationships are material, while social relationships exist between things. The slave is quite literally a commodity with exchange value, by definition a thing capable of effecting social relations. Thus, as Joan Dayan points out in "Race and Romance," the slave becomes for the owner the "ultimate possession" and the pleasure of such ownership becomes "addictive." Within the context of bondage, rather than race per se, we can begin to demystify the nature of Cathy and Heathcliff's relationship and the problems of confused identity the text poses.