Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Wald, Priscilla

Title Constituting Americans : cultural anxiety and narrative form / Priscilla Wald
Published Durham : Duke University Press, 1995

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xiv, 390 pages)
Series New Americanists
New Americanists.
Contents Neither citizen nor alien : national narratives, Frederick Douglass, and the politics of self-definition -- "As from a faithful mirror : Pierre, Our Nig, and literary nationalism -- "The strange meaning of being black" : The souls of black folk and the narrative of history -- A "losing-self sense" : The making of Americans and the anxiety of identity -- Coda: An American "we."
Summary "Ever since the founders drafted "We the people," "we" have been at pains to work out the contradictions in their formulation, to fix in words precisely what it means to be American. Constituting Americans rethinks the way that certain writers of the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century contributed to this project; in doing so, it revises the traditional narrative of U.S. literary history, restoring an essential chapter to the story of an emerging American cultural identity. In diverse ways, very different writers--including Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Harriet Wilson, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Gertrude Stein--participated in the construction and dissemination of an American identity, but none was entirely at ease in the culture they all helped to define. Evident in their work is a haunting sense of their telling someone else's story, a discomfort that Priscilla Wald reads in the context of legal and political debates about citizenship and personhood that marked the emergence of the United States as a nation and a world power."--Provided by publisher
Analysis English fiction History
United States
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-374) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
Print version record
digitized 2019 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 -- Criticism and interpretation
Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 -- Criticism and interpretation
Wilson, Harriet E., 1825-1900 -- Criticism and interpretation
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963 -- Criticism and interpretation
Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946 -- Criticism and interpretation
James, William, 1842-1910 -- Criticism and interpretation
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Criticism and interpretation
SUBJECT Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 fast
Wilson, Harriet E., 1825-1900 fast
Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946 fast
Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 fast
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 fast
James, William, 1842-1910 fast
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963 fast
Centro para la Promoción de la Conservación del Suelo y del Agua Buenos Aires gnd
Subject Group identity -- United States -- History
Narration (Rhetoric) -- Political aspects -- United States
Political culture -- United States -- History
American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism
National characteristics, American, in literature.
Group identity in literature.
Anxiety in literature.
15.85 history of America.
18.06 Anglo-American literature.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General.
HISTORY -- United States -- General.
National characteristics, American, in literature
Group identity in literature
Anxiety in literature
American literature
Group identity
Narration (Rhetoric) -- Political aspects
Political culture
Gruppenidentität
Prosa
Amerikaans.
Letterkunde.
Culturele identiteit.
Nationalisme.
Identité collective -- États-Unis.
Narration -- Aspect politique -- États-Unis.
Culture politique -- États-Unis.
Littérature et société -- États-Unis.
Littérature américaine -- 19e siècle -- Histoire et critique.
Littérature américaine -- 20e siècle -- Histoire et critique.
United States
USA
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780822381907
0822381907