Civic Myths: A Law-and-literature Approach to CitizenshipAs questions of citizenship generate new debates for this generation of Americans, Brook Thomas argues for revitalizing the role of literature in civic education. Thomas defines civic myths as compelling stories about national origin, membership, and values that are generated by conflicts within the concept of citizenship itself. Selected works of literature, he claims, work on these myths by challenging their terms at the same time that they work with them by relying on the power of narrative to produce compelling new stories. Civic Myths consists of four case studies: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and "the good citizen"; Edward Everett Hale's "The Man without a Country" and "the patriotic citizen"; Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and "the independent citizen"; and Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men and "the immigrant citizen." Thomas also provides analysis of the civic mythology surrounding Abraham Lincoln and the case of Ex parte Milligan. Engaging current debates about civil society, civil liberties, civil rights, and immigration, Thomas draws on the complexities of law and literature to probe the complexities of U.S. citizenship. |
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Page 150
... Twain's sketch appeared in the midst of a volume replete with Civil War reminiscences . But Twain's fabrication also gives moral sanctity to his first important change of allegiance , his first step toward becoming a Scalawag . If most ...
... Twain's sketch appeared in the midst of a volume replete with Civil War reminiscences . But Twain's fabrication also gives moral sanctity to his first important change of allegiance , his first step toward becoming a Scalawag . If most ...
Page 175
... Twain's portrayal of slavery in Huckleberry Finn could have had a potentially positive effect even at the time of ... Twain as a writer identified with the nation only because in most people's minds Lincoln was not identified primarily ...
... Twain's portrayal of slavery in Huckleberry Finn could have had a potentially positive effect even at the time of ... Twain as a writer identified with the nation only because in most people's minds Lincoln was not identified primarily ...
Page 272
... Twain , arguing that the national climate that helped to produce the Court's decision “ aided Twain to clarify and resolve the difficulty he had been having finishing a novel in which the interrelated humanity and rights of a black man ...
... Twain , arguing that the national climate that helped to produce the Court's decision “ aided Twain to clarify and resolve the difficulty he had been having finishing a novel in which the interrelated humanity and rights of a black man ...
Contents
The Scarlet Letter | 27 |
3 The Man without a Country | 55 |
Ex parte Milligan | 102 |
Copyright | |
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