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Secular Revelations
The Constitution of the United States and Classic American Literature
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Mitchell Meltzer
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2005
About this book
The U.S. Constitution is a quintessentially political document. Yet, until now, no one has seriously considered the formative influence of this document on American cultural life. In this ambitious book, Mitchell Meltzer demonstrates the extent to which the Constitution is both source and inspiration for America's greatest literary masterworks.
Reviews
Mitchell Meltzer’s book offers an interesting insight into a seldom studied aspect of American cultural history. In its pages, the author analyzes the impact of the American Constitution on three of the main American Renaissance writers, Emerson, Whitman and Melville… Secular Revelations enables us to look into the Constitution of the United States, not merely as a legal text, but as a cultural frame; Meltzer gives the reader numerous examples, and his study of the three writers he chooses is accurate and inspiring.
-- Alice Beja Cercles
-- Alice Beja Cercles
More than ever, it is good to be reminded that the American Constitution is a secular revelation, since what Emerson called the Party of Memory (now our Christian Right) asserts the opposite. Mitchell Meltzer helps to restore the truth, and shows how Emerson, Whitman and Melville based aspects of their own secular revelations on our Founding Document, the continued inspiration for Emerson’s now dispirited Party of Hope.
-- Harold Bloom, author of The Western Canon
-- Harold Bloom, author of The Western Canon
With unparalleled insight, Meltzer explains the power of the U.S. Constitution to exert literary influence at the highest level. This groundbreaking work demonstrates that our founding source of authority, the Constitution, fuses religion and secularity into a single inspiring paradox, whose metaphysical power fuels the writing of three great Americans, Emerson, Whitman, and Melville. For the first time in literary history, Meltzer rightly accords the Constitution its paradoxical creative role.
-- Angus Fletcher, author of A New Theory for American Poetry
-- Angus Fletcher, author of A New Theory for American Poetry
This fascinating study of some of the ‘greats’ of American literature throws new light on the ways that the United States Constitution is not only a legal document, but also, and in some ways even more importantly, a central shaper of American culture. It also shows how a secular Constitution can serve as a substitute for more traditional revealed religion.
-- Sanford Levinson, author of Constitutional Faith
-- Sanford Levinson, author of Constitutional Faith
Secular Revelations explores the place of the Constitution in the development of an American literary tradition. Beautifully written and powerfully argued, it combines a rich historical synthesis of the debates and cultural meanings of the Constitution, from the Framers through the antebellum era, with a strikingly original argument and literary readings. It should be of interest to all Americanists in the fields of literature and American Studies, as well as to historians of the early Republic and antebellum eras and of the Constitution.
-- John Stauffer, author of The Black Hearts of Men
-- John Stauffer, author of The Black Hearts of Men
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Frontmatter
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Contents
vii -
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Acknowledgments
ix -
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Introduction: The Constitution and American Literature
1 - I: The Constitution as a Secular Revelation
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1. At the Beginning
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2. The Path to Union
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3. The People, Having Spoken, Speak
31 -
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4. Almost a Miracle
39 -
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5. The Paradox of Secular Revelation
49 - II: An American Literary Renaissance
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6. Declarations of American Literary Independence
57 -
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7. Preserving the Revelation
66 -
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8. Preserving the Paradox
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9. The Literary Renaissance of Secular Revelation
87 -
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10. Essays in Time
97 -
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11. A Poetic Form for Straying
111 -
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12. Clinging to Narrative
125 -
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13. Confidence and the Darkness of Revelation
144 -
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Conclusion: The Literary Art of Uniting States
156 -
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Notes
165 -
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Index
189
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 1, 2009
eBook ISBN:
9780674040946
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
204
eBook ISBN:
9780674040946
Audience(s) for this book
Professional and scholarly;
