Letter and the Spirit of Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Justice, Politics, Theology

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McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, Jan 12, 2005 - Literary Criticism - 304 pages
Moving back to the trial of Anne Hutchinson in Puritan Massachusetts and the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson in order to analyse theo-political signification, Loebel provides a new context for examining the politically performative function of language in such texts as "The Scarlet Letter," "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and "Waiting for the Verdict." He also argues, however, that a specific theo-logic manifests itself in the political rhetoric of the nation, such that the afterlife of the "New Jerusalem" resonates not just in the "Blessings of Liberty" enshrined in the Constitution but also in the shift from a religious understanding of union with Jesus to that of the Union of States as a nation. Loebel compares unionist and confederate discourse, opening up new ways of theorising representation as a political, theological, legal, and literary issue that has continued currency both in twentieth-century literature and in the political discourse of America's global vision, such as the "axis of evil" and the "new world order." Anyone interested in American literature and culture will view the relationship between ethics and justice differently after reading this book.

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Contents

Introduction
3
1 The Justice of Sentencing or How Not to Speak
26
How to Avoid Speaking the Name of the Father
62
UnionistRepublican and ConfederateDemocratic Narratives
99
Uncle Toms Cabin and the Ethical Critique of Justice
127
5 Exodus Politics and the Redemption of Difference
172
Advocacy and Others Voices
217
Confederate Democracy and the NonInDifferent Constitution
245
Notes
257
Works Cited
273
Index
289
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