Democracy, Revolution, and Monarchism in Early American LiteraturePaul Downes combines literary criticism and political history in order to explore responses to the rejection of monarchism in the American revolutionary era. Downes' analysis considers the Declaration of Independence, Franklin's autobiography, Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer and the works of America's first significant literary figures including Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper. He claims that the post-revolutionary American state and the new democratic citizen inherited some of the complex features of absolute monarchy, even as they were strenuously trying to assert their difference from it. In chapters that consider the revolution's mock execution of George III, the Elizabethan notion of the 'king's two bodies' and the political significance of the secret ballot, Downes points to the traces of monarchical political structures within the practices and discourses of early American democracy. This is an ambitious study of an important theme in early American culture and society. |
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Page 1
... kind of decadent absurdity that would shut a man from the world even as he is asked to exercise his decisive political judgment . To recognize this madness and call it by its name is , according to the American Revolution , to come out ...
... kind of decadent absurdity that would shut a man from the world even as he is asked to exercise his decisive political judgment . To recognize this madness and call it by its name is , according to the American Revolution , to come out ...
Page 4
... kind of theoretical obfuscation that is incapable of reading the revolution's own language about itself . To that end , this book has an unapologetic founding question : “ How might literary theory contribute to our understanding of the ...
... kind of theoretical obfuscation that is incapable of reading the revolution's own language about itself . To that end , this book has an unapologetic founding question : “ How might literary theory contribute to our understanding of the ...
Page 10
... kind of border crisis that for all its danger and for all the anxiety it generates , nevertheless belongs to democracy ( the guest editorial was entitled " Fragile - But Democratic " ) . But something , it is important to remember ...
... kind of border crisis that for all its danger and for all the anxiety it generates , nevertheless belongs to democracy ( the guest editorial was entitled " Fragile - But Democratic " ) . But something , it is important to remember ...
Page 16
... kind of weather . When does one become a member of the American Revolution ? Many accounts of the founding era have included more or less scandalous rev- elations of the limited beneficiaries of the revolution's achievements . Few would ...
... kind of weather . When does one become a member of the American Revolution ? Many accounts of the founding era have included more or less scandalous rev- elations of the limited beneficiaries of the revolution's achievements . Few would ...
Page 23
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Contents
1 | |
reading the mock executions of 1776 | 31 |
CHAPTER 2 Crèvecoeurs revolutionary loyalism | 58 |
the memoirs of Stephen Burroughs and Benjamin Franklin | 84 |
Brockden Browns secrets | 112 |
Irving and the gender of democracy | 144 |
the revolutions last word | 165 |
Notes | 182 |
Bibliography | 223 |
Index | 237 |
Other editions - View all
Democracy, Revolution, and Monarchism in Early American Literature Paul Downes No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
American Revolution anonymous anxiety authority body politic Brockden Brown's C. L. R. James calls Carwin celebrated chapter character Charles Brockden Brown citizen claim colonies concealment Constitution convention Cooper's Crèvecoeur's culture Dame Van Winkle Declaration of Independence democracy democratic subject discourse effigies election Emerson England fantasy father Federalist Papers figure Fliegelman force founding franchise Franklin Freneau George Harvey Birch ideology Indian individual Irving's James James Fenimore Cooper James Madison Jefferson Jersey John Adams John de Crèvecoeur justice king king's Kirvan Letters literary Ludloe's Madison Memoirs monarchism monarchophobia nation Native American nature novel Paine Paine's patriotic person political subjectivity post-revolutionary quoted radical relationship representation representative republic republican resistance revolution's revolutionary rhetorical Rip Van Winkle Rip's sacrifice secrecy sense sovereign speech spell Stephen Burroughs story structure suggests temporal Thomas Paine United ventriloquism violence voters voting Warner Washington women words writes wrote