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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 53
Page 1
... wrote Thomas Paine in 1776 : it first excludes a man from the means of information , yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgement is required . The state of a king shuts him from the world , yet the business of a king ...
... wrote Thomas Paine in 1776 : it first excludes a man from the means of information , yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgement is required . The state of a king shuts him from the world , yet the business of a king ...
Page 2
... wrote Thomas Paine , referring to royal nomen- clature , “ are like circles drawn by the magician's wand , to contract the sphere of man's felicity " ( Rights of Man , 227 ) ; “ May [ The Declaration of Independence ] , " wrote Thomas ...
... wrote Thomas Paine , referring to royal nomen- clature , “ are like circles drawn by the magician's wand , to contract the sphere of man's felicity " ( Rights of Man , 227 ) ; “ May [ The Declaration of Independence ] , " wrote Thomas ...
Page 5
... wrote Thomas Jefferson , “ to extirpate from creation this class of human lions , tigers , and mammoths called kings , from whom let him perish who does not say ' good Lord deliver us . " " 5 The antagonism between monarchism and ...
... wrote Thomas Jefferson , “ to extirpate from creation this class of human lions , tigers , and mammoths called kings , from whom let him perish who does not say ' good Lord deliver us . " " 5 The antagonism between monarchism and ...
Page 8
... wrote Malcolm X , “ means you're asking Uncle Sam to treat you right . Human rights are something you were born with . Human rights are your God - given rights . Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this ...
... wrote Malcolm X , “ means you're asking Uncle Sam to treat you right . Human rights are something you were born with . Human rights are your God - given rights . Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this ...
Page 13
... principle or sentiment , nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing , " wrote Jefferson , the Declaration was “ an expression of the American mind " Introduction : the spell of democracy 13 REVOLUTIONARY GRMMAR.
... principle or sentiment , nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing , " wrote Jefferson , the Declaration was “ an expression of the American mind " Introduction : the spell of democracy 13 REVOLUTIONARY GRMMAR.
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