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Constituting Americanness : a History of the Concept and its Representations in Antebellum American Literature / Iulian Cananau.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Cananau, Iulian, 1975- author.
- Series:
- American culture (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) ; Bd. 11.
- American culture, 1615-567X ; Band 11
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- National characteristics, American--History--19th century.
- National characteristics, American.
- Nationalism--United States--History--19th century.
- Nationalism.
- Rhetoric--Political aspects.
- History.
- Politics and culture.
- United States.
- United States--Politics and government--1815-1861.
- Politics and government.
- United States--Social conditions--To 1865.
- Social conditions.
- Politics and culture--United States--History--19th century.
- Rhetoric--Political aspects--United States--History--19th century.
- Rhetoric.
- National characteristics, American, in literature.
- Nationalism in literature.
- American literature--19th century--History and criticism.
- American literature.
- Politics and literature--United States--History--19th century.
- Politics and literature.
- Political science.
- Social history.
- Genre:
- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- ix, 280 pages ; 22 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang GmbH, [2015]
- Summary:
- "This work in cultural history and literary criticism suggests a fresh and fruitful approach to the old notion of Americanness. Following Reinhart Koselleck's Begriffsgeschichte, the author proposes that Americanness is not an ordinary word, but a concept with a historically specific semantic field. In the three decades before the Civil War, Americanness was constituted at the intersection of several concepts, in different stages of their respective histories; among these, nation, representation, individualism, sympathy, race, and womanhood. By tracing the representations of these concepts in literary texts of the antebellum era and investigating their over-lapping with the rhetoric of national identification, this study uncovers some of the meaning of Americanness in that period"--Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- The history of "Americanness" in American literary studies
- Ethnicity, race, and whiteness in ethnic conceptions of Americanness
- Methodological considerations toward a theory of Americanness and its contribution to American literary history
- Americanness, Americanism, and U.S. national identity
- Nation
- Three avatars of American representation : the philosopher, the citizen, and the poet
- Individualism
- Sympathy
- Slavery, race, and racism
- Womanhood
- The new order of free enterprise capitalism
- Afterword.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-274) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.
- ISBN:
- 9783631657690
- 3631657692
- OCLC:
- 898272726
- Publisher Number:
- 99962695591
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