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
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Page 9
... chapter one , that of the obedient people ) is an integral part of the structure of democratic subjectivity . This contamination can be glimpsed in the various revolu- tionary condemnations of the absolute monarch's privileged ...
... chapter one , that of the obedient people ) is an integral part of the structure of democratic subjectivity . This contamination can be glimpsed in the various revolu- tionary condemnations of the absolute monarch's privileged ...
Page 10
... chapters three and four I will suggest at more length how the subject of the Constitution can be thought of not just as the subject of convention but as the subject of the Convention , the subject of that insistently secretive and ...
... chapters three and four I will suggest at more length how the subject of the Constitution can be thought of not just as the subject of convention but as the subject of the Convention , the subject of that insistently secretive and ...
Page 11
... chapter , " What is an American ? ” from Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur's Letters from An American Farmer ( 1782 ) , the narrator , James , describes a scene in which a recently arrived emigrant from the Scottish island of Barra is told ...
... chapter , " What is an American ? ” from Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur's Letters from An American Farmer ( 1782 ) , the narrator , James , describes a scene in which a recently arrived emigrant from the Scottish island of Barra is told ...
Page 12
... chapter one , but I want to note it here in order to begin to suggest that a mystificatory language of self - analysis is not foreign to the discourse of revolutionary transformation in late- eighteenth century America . “ America ...
... chapter one , but I want to note it here in order to begin to suggest that a mystificatory language of self - analysis is not foreign to the discourse of revolutionary transformation in late- eighteenth century America . “ America ...
Page 13
... chapter two , Crèvecoeur's James is not at all sure about American “ innovations , ” and not at all sure that he will feel safer once his chosen country has aban- doned the " ancient connexion " with the crown of England . James is not ...
... chapter two , Crèvecoeur's James is not at all sure about American “ innovations , ” and not at all sure that he will feel safer once his chosen country has aban- doned the " ancient connexion " with the crown of England . James is not ...
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