E Pluribus Unum: Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Constitutional Paradox“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 many as it came to be understood at the time. W. C. Harris supplies a detailed account of the genealogy of the concept, exploring both its applications and its paradoxes as a basis for state and identity formation. Harris then considers the perilous integration of the one and the many as a motive in the major literary accomplishments of 19th-century U.S. writers. Drawing upon critical as well as historical resources and upon contexts as diverse as cosmology, epistemology, poetics, politics, and Bible translation, he discusses attempts by Poe, Whitman, Melville, and William James to resolve the problems of social construction caused by the paradox of e pluribus unum by writing literary and philosophical texts that supplement the nation’s political founding documents. Poe (Eureka), Whitman (Leaves of Grass), Melville (Billy Budd), and William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience) provide their own distinct, sometimes contradictory resolutions to the conflicting demands of diversity and unity, equality and hierarchy. Each of these texts understands literary and philosophical writing as having the potential to transform-conceptually or actually-the construction of social order. This work will be of great interest to literary and constitutional scholars. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 84
Page
... Whitman's Leaves of Grass and the Writing of a New American Bible ” in The Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 16.3–4 ( Winter / Spring 1999 ) and “ Whitman's Leaves of Grass and the Problem of the One and the Many " in Arizona Quarterly 56.3 ...
... Whitman's Leaves of Grass and the Writing of a New American Bible ” in The Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 16.3–4 ( Winter / Spring 1999 ) and “ Whitman's Leaves of Grass and the Problem of the One and the Many " in Arizona Quarterly 56.3 ...
Page
... Whitman . Complete Poetry and Collected Prose . DC Bailyn , ed . The Debate on the Constitution . Vol . 1 ( of 2 ... Whitman . Leaves of Grass , Comprehensive Reader's Edition . MD Melville . Moby - Dick . NUPM Whitman . Notebooks and ...
... Whitman . Complete Poetry and Collected Prose . DC Bailyn , ed . The Debate on the Constitution . Vol . 1 ( of 2 ... Whitman . Leaves of Grass , Comprehensive Reader's Edition . MD Melville . Moby - Dick . NUPM Whitman . Notebooks and ...
Page 2
... Whitman , Herman Melville , and William James , the Federalists were deeply aware of the conflict between , on the one hand , our tendency to produce or perceive uni- ties ( “ We are in search of unity ” ) and , on the other , our ...
... Whitman , Herman Melville , and William James , the Federalists were deeply aware of the conflict between , on the one hand , our tendency to produce or perceive uni- ties ( “ We are in search of unity ” ) and , on the other , our ...
Page 3
... Whitman but shared by Poe , Melville , and others — that literary texts stand in a supplementary relation to social formation — has its precedent in the kinds of relation between the nation's founding political documents and between ...
... Whitman but shared by Poe , Melville , and others — that literary texts stand in a supplementary relation to social formation — has its precedent in the kinds of relation between the nation's founding political documents and between ...
Page 10
... Whitman , Melville , and James at times aim for the res- olution of contradiction while they also ( enthusiastically or not ) admit contradiction's irresolvable character . They imply , if not insist , that the ineradicably problematic ...
... Whitman , Melville , and James at times aim for the res- olution of contradiction while they also ( enthusiastically or not ) admit contradiction's irresolvable character . They imply , if not insist , that the ineradicably problematic ...
Contents
1 | |
37 | |
A Religion Which Is No Religion Walt Whitman and the Writing of a New American Bible | 71 |
But Arent It All a Sham? Herman Melville and the Critique of Unity | 111 |
Necessarily Short of Sight William James and the Dilemma of Variety | 153 |
Afterword | 195 |
Notes | 209 |
Works Cited | 289 |
Index | 309 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
American literary American social formation argue Articles Articles of Confederation attempt authority Bible Billy Budd Billy's Book of Mormon Budd's Cetology chapter character civil religion Claggart claim concern Congregationalism constitutional regime cosmology critical culture death Declaration democracy difference discourse disparates e pluribus unum edition epistemological equality Eureka fact federal Federalist Federalist Papers founding documents genre hierarchy ical ideal identity imperative to unity individual inevitable institution integration Ishmael James's Jamesian kind Leaves of Grass Lincoln logical means mediation Melville Melville's Moby Moby Dick Moby-Dick monism nature nineteenth-century one-and-the-many problem persons Philippine philosophical phrenology Plotinus pluralism pluribus unum Poe's poem poet poetic poetry political principle Queequeg reconstruction relation religion religious representation revision sacrifice secular seems slavery social order solution structure suggests textual theological theorization tion totality translation truth unification Union unity-in-variety variety Vere Whitman whole William James words writing