1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910777888603321

Autore

Harris W. C (William Conley)

Titolo

E pluribus unum [[electronic resource] ] : nineteenth-century American literature & the Constitutional paradox / / W.C. Harris

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Iowa City, : University of Iowa Press, c2005

ISBN

1-58729-593-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (329 p.)

Disciplina

810.9/358/097309034

Soggetti

American literature - 19th century - History and criticism

Cultural pluralism in literature

Politics and literature - United States - History - 19th century

Literature and society - United States - History - 19th century

Group identity in literature

Individualism in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-307) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction; "Brotherhood among the Atoms" Edgar Allan Poe and the Poetics of Constitution; "A Religion Which Is No Religion" Walt Whitman and the Writing of a New American Bible; "But Aren't It All a Sham?" Herman Melville and the Critique of Unity; "Necessarily Short of Sight" William James and the Dilemma of Variety; Afterword; Notes; Works Cited; Index

Sommario/riassunto

""Out of many, one."" But how do the many become one without sacrificing difference or autonomy? This problem was critical to both identity formation and state formation in late 18th- and 19th-century America. The premise of this book is that American writers of the time came to view the resolution of this central philosophical problem as no longer the exclusive province of legislative or judicial documents but capable of being addressed by literary texts as well. The project of E Pluribus Unum is twofold. Its first and underlying concern is the general philosophic problem of the one and the m