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 9
... person cannot be a mere workman without some sort of ability ; to be a king all that a man requires is to be born " ( 391 ) . If today it is becoming possible to challenge the unexamined efficacy of an appeal to the rights of man ( the ...
... person cannot be a mere workman without some sort of ability ; to be a king all that a man requires is to be born " ( 391 ) . If today it is becoming possible to challenge the unexamined efficacy of an appeal to the rights of man ( the ...
Page 11
... person who was unable to read or write anything at all . It is not a simple distinction between speech and writing that the voting booth gives us to consider , then , but an understanding of writing as the name for that in language ...
... person who was unable to read or write anything at all . It is not a simple distinction between speech and writing that the voting booth gives us to consider , then , but an understanding of writing as the name for that in language ...
Page 12
... person who never possessed anything conceive that he could extend his new dominion over this land , even after he should be laid in his grave ? ” ( 102 ) . What are we to make of this language ? Is it merely rhetorical play ? To say ...
... person who never possessed anything conceive that he could extend his new dominion over this land , even after he should be laid in his grave ? ” ( 102 ) . What are we to make of this language ? Is it merely rhetorical play ? To say ...
Page 13
... person singular of a democratic individualism and the first person plural of a representative voice that appears to be necessary in order to claim inalienable rights . Even Jefferson , as we know , was caught up in this tension ...
... person singular of a democratic individualism and the first person plural of a representative voice that appears to be necessary in order to claim inalienable rights . Even Jefferson , as we know , was caught up in this tension ...
Page 14
... person plural of the Declaration's textual voice.20 But the complexity does not stop there . For in addition to the play of first person singular and plural voices at work in this text there is also an- other “ voice . ” The ...
... person plural of the Declaration's textual voice.20 But the complexity does not stop there . For in addition to the play of first person singular and plural voices at work in this text there is also an- other “ voice . ” The ...
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 |
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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