LEADER 04329nam 2200769 a 450 001 9910455240303321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-282-15826-0 010 $a9786612158261 010 $a1-4008-2890-2 024 7 $a10.1515/9781400828906 035 $a(CKB)1000000000788500 035 $a(EBL)457863 035 $a(OCoLC)438793704 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000221912 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11175227 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000221912 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10168349 035 $a(PQKB)10864337 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC457863 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse36578 035 $a(DE-B1597)447044 035 $a(OCoLC)979754661 035 $a(DE-B1597)9781400828906 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL457863 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10312526 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL215826 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000788500 100 $a20080319d2008 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 12$aA pinnacle of feeling$b[electronic resource] $eAmerican literature and presidential government /$fSean McCann 205 $aCourse Book 210 $aPrinceton, N.J. $cPrinceton University Press$dc2008 215 $a1 online resource (264 p.) 225 1 $a20/21 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-691-13695-5 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [197]-241) and index. 327 $t Frontmatter -- $tCONTENTS -- $tPreface -- $tIntroduction. The Executive Disease: Presidential Power and Literary Imagination -- $tChapter One. Masters of Their Constitution: Gertrude Stein and the Promise of Progressive Leadership -- $tChapter Two. Governable Beasts: Hurston, Roth, and the New Deal -- $tChapter Three. The Myth of the Public Interest: Pluralism and Presidentialism in the Fifties -- $tChapter Four. Come Home, America: Vietnam And The End Of The Progressive Presidency -- $tEpilogue. Philip Roth And The Waning And Waxing Of Political Time -- $tNotes -- $tIndex 330 $aThere is no more powerful symbol in American political life than the presidency, and the image of presidential power has had no less profound an impact on American fiction. A Pinnacle of Feeling is the first book to examine twentieth-century literature's deep fascination with the modern presidency and with the ideas about the relationship between state power and democracy that underwrote the rise of presidential authority. Sean McCann challenges prevailing critical interpretations through revelatory new readings of major writers, including Richard Wright, Gertrude Stein, Henry Roth, Zora Neale Hurston, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Norman Mailer, Don Delillo, and Philip Roth. He argues that these writers not only represented or satirized presidents, but echoed political thinkers who cast the chief executive as the agent of the sovereign will of the American people. They viewed the president as ideally a national redeemer, and they took that ideal as a model and rival for their own work. A Pinnacle of Feeling illuminates the fundamental concern with democratic sovereignty that informs the most innovative literary works of the twentieth century, and shows how these works helped redefine and elevate the role of executive power in American culture. 410 0$a20/21 (Princeton, N.J.) 606 $aAmerican literature$y20th century$xHistory and criticism 606 $aPolitics and literature$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aExecutive power in literature 606 $aPresidents in literature 606 $aExecutive power$xPhilosophy 606 $aAuthors, American$y20th century$xPolitical and social views 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aAmerican literature$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aPolitics and literature$xHistory 615 0$aExecutive power in literature. 615 0$aPresidents in literature. 615 0$aExecutive power$xPhilosophy. 615 0$aAuthors, American$xPolitical and social views. 676 $a810.9/35873 700 $aMcCann$b Sean$f1962-$01051458 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910455240303321 996 $aA pinnacle of feeling$92481958 997 $aUNINA