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Oxford University Press, USA
American Enchantment: Rituals of the People in the Post-Revolutionary World
American Enchantment: Rituals of the People in the Post-Revolutionary World
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The demise of the monarchy and the bodily absence of a King caused a representational crisis in the early republic, forcing the American people to reconstruct the social symbolic order in a new and unfamiliar way. Social historians have routinely understood the Revolution and the early
republic as projects dedicated to and productive of reason, with the people as an orderly and sensible collective at odds with the volatile and unthinking crowd. American Enchantment rejects this traditionally held vision of a rational public sphere, arguing that early Americans dealt with the
post-monarchical crisis by engaging in civil mysticism, not systematic discussion and debate. By evaluating a wide range of social and political rituals and literary and cultural discourses, Sizemore shows how enchantment becomes a vital mode of enacting the people after the demise of
traditional monarchical forms. In works by Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, Catharine Sedgwick, and Nathaniel Hawthorne--as well as in Delaware oral histories, accounts of George Washington's inauguration, and Methodist conversion narratives--enchantment is an experience uniquely capable
of producing new forms of popular power and social affiliation. Recognizing the role of enchantment in constituting the people overturns some of the most common-sense assumptions in the post-revolutionary world: above all, that the people are not simply a flesh-and-blood substance, but also a
mystical force.
Author: Michelle Sizemore
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 12/01/2017
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780190627539
republic as projects dedicated to and productive of reason, with the people as an orderly and sensible collective at odds with the volatile and unthinking crowd. American Enchantment rejects this traditionally held vision of a rational public sphere, arguing that early Americans dealt with the
post-monarchical crisis by engaging in civil mysticism, not systematic discussion and debate. By evaluating a wide range of social and political rituals and literary and cultural discourses, Sizemore shows how enchantment becomes a vital mode of enacting the people after the demise of
traditional monarchical forms. In works by Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, Catharine Sedgwick, and Nathaniel Hawthorne--as well as in Delaware oral histories, accounts of George Washington's inauguration, and Methodist conversion narratives--enchantment is an experience uniquely capable
of producing new forms of popular power and social affiliation. Recognizing the role of enchantment in constituting the people overturns some of the most common-sense assumptions in the post-revolutionary world: above all, that the people are not simply a flesh-and-blood substance, but also a
mystical force.
Author: Michelle Sizemore
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 12/01/2017
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780190627539
About the Author
Michelle Sizemore is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Kentucky.
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