Democracy's Literature Politics and Fiction in America

by Deneen, Patrick J.; Romance, Joseph; Balfour, Lawrie; Cantor, Paul A.; Hamlin, D.A; Jensen, Pamela K.; Lawler, Peter Augustine; McWilliams, Wilson Carey; Sabia, Dan; Zuckert, Catherine H.

• ISBN13: 9780742532588
• ISBN10: 0742532585
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-28
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

American literature is profoundly, almost inescapably political. In this fascinating new anthology of original essays, ten leading scholars explore the ways in which American civic education has been informally advanced through literature. Delving into the works of authors ranging from Mark Twain to William Faulkner to Octavia Butler, these essays reflect on the close relationship between democracy and literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Art of Democratic Literature	p. 1
Billy Budd and the Politics of Prudence	p. 9
Yankee Go Home: Twain's Postcolonial Romance	p. 31
Tom Sawyer: Potential President	p. 61
Patriots and Philosophers: The Idea of Obligation and Race in William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust	p. 79
A Story about Nothing: Two Kinds of Nihilists and One Kind of Christian in Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People"	p. 97
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Men	p. 117
Go Tell It on the Mountain: James Baldwin and the Politics of Faith	p. 153
Vexed Genealogy: Octavia Butler and Political Memories of Slavery	p. 171
"Hello Babies": Eliot Rosewater and the Art of Citizenship in the Graduation Speeches of Kurt Vonnegut	p. 191
The American Mystery Deepens: Hearing Tocqueville in Don DeLillo's White Noise	p. 207
Index	p. 235
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