Texting the Nation

Agencies and Actions in the Declaration of Independence
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-89284-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Reihe: Routledge Research in American Literature and Culture

Texting the Nation closely parses the Declaration of Independence's text and logical argument in grammatical and rhetorical terms to highlight patterns of agency, from the passive voice construction and re-arranged parallel arrangement of political principles to the composition history and meaning of the deleted slavery paragraph from the grievances, and then to the heavy Congressional editing of the conclusion, both to add God-language and restore the Lee Resolution for Independence. The book highlights the Virginia background of the Declaration (the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Jefferson's draft for the Virginia Constitution, and the Lee Resolution), including the Virginia antislavery myth and non-importation movement. Additionally, Texting includes Declaration criticism, including Timothy Pickering and Jacques Derrida.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ditmore, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

List of Acronyms

Introduction: The Declaration of Independence and Criticism

Finding "the" Declaration of Independence: Notes on the Text(s)

1. Agent(s)/Agency, Slavery and Slavery in Eighteenth-Century British North America

as Rhetoric (and Some Reality)

2. The Major Premise: Ambiguating The Human Condition, Government, and Divine Passivity

3. The Minor Premise: The Omnipotent Potentate, the Grievances, and Slavery

(and the Virginia Constitution, 1776-1903)

4. Authorizing and Accomplishing Independence: Jefferson's Double-Columned Conclusion, the Return (or Not) of God, and the Multiplying/Dividing Declaration

Conclusion: There’s Something About the Declaration of Independence (But What Is It?)

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Michael Ditmore is Professor of English specializing in early American literature and Great Books at Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, where he has also served as Director of American Studies and Dean of the Humanities/Teacher Education Division. He has previously published on William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, Anne Bradstreet, Elizabeth Ashbridge, Jonathan Edwards, Crèvecoeur, and Benjamin Franklin.