Direct democracy : collective power, the swarm, and the literatures of the Americas / Scott Henkel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Henkel, Scott, author.

Series:

Caribbean studies series (Jackson, Miss.)

Caribbean studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social movements.

History.

Democracy and the arts.

Democracy.

America--Literatures--History and criticism.

America.

Democracy in literature.

Democracy--America.

Democracy and the arts--America.

Social movements--America--History--19th century.

Literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 209 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2017]

Summary:

"Beginning with the Haitian Revolution, Scott Henkel lays out a literary history of direct democracy in the Americas. Much research considers direct democracy as a form of organization fit for worker cooperatives or political movements. Henkel reinterprets it as a type of collective power, based on the massive slave revolt in Haiti. In the representations of slaves, women, and workers, Henkel traces a history of power through the literatures of the Americas during the long nineteenth century. Thinking about democracy as a type of power presents a challenge to common, often bureaucratic and limited interpretations of the term and opens an alternative archive, which Henkel argues includes C.L.R. James's The Black Jacobins, Walt Whitman's Democratic Vistas, Lucy Parsons's speeches advocating for the eight-hour workday, B. Traven's novels of the Mexican Revolution, and Marie Vieux Chauvet's novella about Haitian dictatorship. Henkel asserts that each writer recognized this power and represented its physical manifestation as a swarm. This metaphor bears a complicated history, often describing a group, a movement, or a community. Indeed it conveys multiplicity and complexity, a collective power. This metaphor's many uses illustrate Henkel's main concerns, the problems of democracy, slavery, and labor, the dynamics of racial repression and resistance, and the issues of power which run throughout the Americas."-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Henkel, Scott. Direct democracy.

ISBN:

9781496812254

1496812255

OCLC:

962552471