Letter and the Spirit of Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Justice, Politics, TheologyMoving 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. |
From inside the book
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Page 7
... thought in their perception and recognition , the relation of emotion to language is fig- ural and is used to bridge orders of physicality to sensibility , body to mind . Thus literature's ability to embody injustice and to call , not ...
... thought in their perception and recognition , the relation of emotion to language is fig- ural and is used to bridge orders of physicality to sensibility , body to mind . Thus literature's ability to embody injustice and to call , not ...
Page 13
... thoughts and theories which emerge from texts and their disruptive language and ideas . The loci that I establish are Anne Hutchinson , Mary Row- landson , Nathaniel Hawthorne , Abraham Lincoln , John C. Calhoun , Harriet Beecher Stowe ...
... thoughts and theories which emerge from texts and their disruptive language and ideas . The loci that I establish are Anne Hutchinson , Mary Row- landson , Nathaniel Hawthorne , Abraham Lincoln , John C. Calhoun , Harriet Beecher Stowe ...
Page 16
... thought , represented , and brought into being . The framers of the Con- stitution represented it in creating democracy as the system of repre- senting differences in relation , and justice as the system that seeks to order relations ...
... thought , represented , and brought into being . The framers of the Con- stitution represented it in creating democracy as the system of repre- senting differences in relation , and justice as the system that seeks to order relations ...
Page 17
... thought as only a theological term , because theology is always realized within gendered and politicized discourses . As the title of the chapter suggests , the theoretical focus concerns whether it is possible to speak a content that ...
... thought as only a theological term , because theology is always realized within gendered and politicized discourses . As the title of the chapter suggests , the theoretical focus concerns whether it is possible to speak a content that ...
Page 18
... thought is figured into language and meaning . One needs to think of language as a certain trans - figuration , in terms of the irreducible figural status of its construction in transition from thought . Thought does not become ...
... thought is figured into language and meaning . One needs to think of language as a certain trans - figuration , in terms of the irreducible figural status of its construction in transition from thought . Thought does not become ...
Contents
3 | |
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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Letter and the Spirit of Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Justice ... Thomas Loebel No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
according African American alterity Anne Hutchinson annunciation Antinomian argue articulated becomes biblical body Cable Calvin Ellis Stowe captivity Christ Christian confederate confederate-democratic congregationalism Constitution construction context conversion covenant Creoles cultural democracy difference Dimmesdale discourse divine emancipation enables equality ethical Exodus faith father feminine figure Frowenfeld function God's Grandissimes H.B. Stowe Harriet Beecher Stowe Hebrew Bible Hester human language identity individual interpretation issues Jesus Jews judgment justice Levinas Liberia liberty logic magistrates male Mary Rowlandson masculinity material meaning ment ministers narrative nation one's particular performance persons plurality political position possibility promote Puritan question racial radical reading Reconstruction redemption relation rendered represent representation revelation rhetoric Rowlandson Scarlet Letter sense sentiment signifies slavery slaves social Sojourner Truth soul speak speech spirit Stowe's structure suggests temporal theological thing tion translation Uncle Tom's Cabin understanding union unionist unionist-republican voice woman women word writing