Paul Downes offers a radical revision of some of the most cherished elements of early American cultural identity. The founding texts and writers of the Republic, he claims, did not wholly displace what they claimed to oppose. Instead, Downes argues, the entire construction of a Republican public sphere actually borrowed and adapted central features of Monarchical rule. Downes discovers this theme not only in a wide range of American novels, but also in readings of a variety of political documents that created the philosophical culture of the American revolutionary period.
Author(s): Paul Downes
Series: Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 252
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 14
DEMOCRACY, REVOLUTION, AND MONARCHISM......Page 15
REVOLUTIONARY EXORCISM......Page 21
REVOLUTIONARY GRMMAR......Page 27
REVOLUTIONARY TIME......Page 30
REVOLUTIONARY PRESENCE......Page 37
DEMOCRATIC SOVEREIGNTY......Page 42
CHAPTER 1 Monarchophobia: reading the mock executions of 1776......Page 45
THE KING’S TWO BODIES......Page 50
THE MONARCHIC HIEROGLYPHIC......Page 53
AMERICAN MONARCHISM......Page 56
MONARCHOPHOBIA’S DISPLACEMENTS......Page 59
THE MONARCHIC VOICE......Page 64
CHAPTER 2 Crèvecoeur’s revolutionary loyalism......Page 72
CRÈVECOEUR’S BAFFLING REVERSALS......Page 73
THE “ANCIENT CONNEXION”......Page 82
BEGINNING AGAIN......Page 90
STEPHEN BURROUGHS’ NOTORIETY......Page 98
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S EXEMPLARY SUBJECTIVITY......Page 109
FRANKLIN’S “SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION”......Page 116
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF STEPHEN BURROUGHS......Page 122
INTRODUCTION......Page 126
CONSTITUTIONAL SECRETS......Page 129
THE SECRET BALLOT......Page 139
CARWIN’S ECHO......Page 141
THE LESSONS OF CONCEALMENT......Page 148
THE “CARNIVAL OF FRAUD”......Page 158
RIP VAN WINKLE’S REVOLUTION......Page 167
Afterword: the revolution’s last word......Page 179
INTRODUCTION: THE SPELL OF DEMOCRACY......Page 196
1 MONARCHOPHOBIA: READING THE MOCK EXECUTIONS OF 1776......Page 202
2 CRÈVECOEUR’S REVOLUTIONARY LOYALISM......Page 209
3 CITIZEN SUBJECTS: THE MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN BURROUGHS AND BENJAMIN FRANKLIN......Page 212
4 AN EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE BALLOT BOX: BROCKDEN BROWN’S SECRETS......Page 219
5 LUXURY, EFFEMINACY, CORRUPTION: IRVING AND THE GENDER OF DEMOCRACY......Page 225
AFTERWORD: THE REVOLUTION’S LAST WORD......Page 234
Bibliography......Page 237
Index......Page 251
