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Democracy growing up : authority, autonomy, and passion in Tocqueville's Democracy in America / by Laura Janara.
Van Pelt Library JK216.T7193 J36 2002
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Janara, Laura, 1966-
- Series:
- SUNY series in political theory. Contemporary issues
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859. De la démocratie en Amérique.
- Tocqueville, Alexis de.
- United States--Politics and government.
- United States.
- Politics and government.
- United States--Social conditions--To 1865.
- Social conditions.
- Autonomy (Psychology).
- Gender identity.
- Physical Description:
- x, 256 pages ; 24 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Albany : State University of New York Press, [2002]
- Summary:
- Tocqueville's Democracy in America continues to be widely read, but for all this familiarity, the vivid imagery with which he conveys his ideas has been overlooked, left to act with unexamined force upon readers' imaginations. In this first sustained feminist reading of Democracy in America Laura Janara assesses the dramatic feminine, masculine, and infantile metaphorical figures that represent the historical political drama that is Tocqueville's primary topic. These tropes are analyzed as both historical artifacts and symbols for psychoanalytic interpretation, deepening and complicating the standing interpretations of Tocquevilie's work. Democracy Growing Up comments critically upon the peculiar gendered and familial foundations of modern Western democracy and upon the notion of democratic maturity that Tocqueville offers us.
- Contents:
- 1 "The Key to Almost the Whole Work" 9
- French and U.S. Discourse 12
- Interpreting Tocqueville's Imagery: A Psychoanalytic Framework 19
- What Tocqueville Fears: Democracy's Three Potentialities 27
- The Abyss 30
- Interpreting Tocqueville's Imagery: Tocqueville in History 33
- Dinnerstein's Theory and Tocqueville's Democracy 37
- Diagnosing the Democratic Psyche 43
- 2 Genealogy, Birth, and Growth 47
- Democracy in France: Urchin Orphan 48
- Democracy in America: Wilderness Expecting 51
- Saginaw: A Scarcely Formed Embryo 55
- Mother England 59
- Resisting the Mother: Democracy as Adolescent 65
- 3 Adolescence and Maturity 69
- Adolescence 71
- Manliness or Individualism? 75
- Democracy in School 77
- Passion for Equality's Charms 80
- Religion, Mores, Morality: Female Bulwark for Maturity 85
- Democratic Maturity? 91
- 4 Homo Puer Robustus: Property, Commerce, Industry 99
- The Impulse for Enterprise 102
- Anxiety and Unsated Desire 104
- Exploiting the Land, Fearing the Flesh, Ennobling Money 108
- Money, Marriage, and Manly Citizenship 111
- Middle Class Desire and the Stilling of Politics 115
- Workers, Owners, and the Veil of Contract 117
- The State as Parent 125
- 5 Impotence and Infantilism 129
- Hypermasculine Individualism 130
- Public Opinion: Elle mene le monde 133
- Female Administration: Male Government 137
- The Guardian State 148
- Infantilism and Impotence 153
- 6 Democracy's Family Values 157
- Democracy as Self-Mastery: Fathers, Sons, and Brothers 163
- Girls: Democracy's Shadow Figures 169
- Fear and Desire: Containing the American Woman 173
- Marriage and Sex: Resurrecting Order 178
- Democracy's Gender and Family Foundations 181
- Conclusion: Family, Gender, and Democratic Maturity 185.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-238) and index.
- ISBN:
- 079145441X
- 0791454428
- OCLC:
- 48803550
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