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JournalISSN: 0002-9831

American Literature 

Duke University Press
About: American Literature is an academic journal published by Duke University Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Poetry & Narrative. It has an ISSN identifier of 0002-9831. Over the lifetime, 3801 publications have been published receiving 46181 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss ways of placing objects in a way that they can be placed according to the philosophy of the Philosophic Schools and the Dialectic of CONSTITUTIONS.
Abstract: Introduction Part One: Ways of Placement I. CONTAINER AND THING CONTAINED II. ANTINOMIES OF DEFINITION III. SCOPE AND REDUCTION Part Two: The Philosophic Schools I. SCENE II. AGENT IN GENERAL III. ACT IV. AGENCY AND PURPOSE Part Three: On Dialectic I. THE DIALECTIC OF CONSTITUTIONS II. DIALECTIC IN GENERAL Appendix Index

3,197 citations

BookDOI
TL;DR: The Queen of America goes to Washington City as discussed by the authors, a book about the U.S. public sphere, argues that the political public sphere has become an intimate public sphere and questions why the contemporary ideal of citizenship is measured by personal and private acts and values rather than civic acts.
Abstract: In The Queen of America Goes to Washington City , Lauren Berlant focuses on the need to revitalize public life and political agency in the United States. Delivering a devastating critique of contemporary discourses of American citizenship, she addresses the triumph of the idea of private life over that of public life borne in the right-wing agenda of the Reagan revolution. By beaming light onto the idealized images and narratives about sex and citizenship that now dominate the U.S. public sphere, Berlant argues that the political public sphere has become an intimate public sphere. She asks why the contemporary ideal of citizenship is measured by personal and private acts and values rather than civic acts, and the ideal citizen has become one who, paradoxically, cannot yet act as a citizen—epitomized by the American child and the American fetus. As Berlant traces the guiding images of U.S. citizenship through the process of privatization, she discusses the ideas of intimacy that have come to define national culture. From the fantasy of the American dream to the lessons of Forrest Gump, Lisa Simpson to Queer Nation, the reactionary culture of imperilled privilege to the testimony of Anita Hill, Berlant charts the landscape of American politics and culture. She examines the consequences of a shrinking and privatized concept of citizenship on increasing class, racial, sexual, and gender animosity and explores the contradictions of a conservative politics that maintains the sacredness of privacy, the virtue of the free market, and the immorality of state overregulation—except when it comes to issues of intimacy. Drawing on literature, the law, and popular media, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City is a stunning and major statement about the nation and its citizens in an age of mass mediation. As it opens a critical space for new theory of agency, its narratives and gallery of images will challenge readers to rethink what it means to be American and to seek salvation in its promise.

1,418 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the works of many major 19th-century women writers and chart a tangible desire expressed for freedom from the restraints of a confining patriarchal society and trace a distinctive female literary tradition.
Abstract: In this work of feminist literary criticism the authors explore the works of many major 19th-century women writers. They chart a tangible desire expressed for freedom from the restraints of a confining patriarchal society and trace a distinctive female literary tradition.

833 citations

BookDOI
TL;DR: Boyce-Davies' Black Women Writing and Identity as discussed by the authors explores a complex and fascinating set of interrelated issues, establishing the significance of such wide-ranging subjects as: * re-mapping, re-naming and cultural crossings * tourist ideologies and playful world travelling * gender, heritage and identity * African women's writing and resistance to domination * marginality, effacement and decentering* gender, language and the politics of location
Abstract: Black Women Writing and Identity is an exciting work by one of the most imaginative and acute writers around. The book explores a complex and fascinating set of interrelated issues, establishing the significance of such wide-ranging subjects as: * re-mapping, re-naming and cultural crossings * tourist ideologies and playful world travelling * gender, heritage and identity * African women's writing and resistance to domination * marginality, effacement and decentering * gender, language and the politics of location Carole Boyce-Davies is at the forefront of attempts to broaden the discourse surrounding the representation of and by black women and women of colour. Black Women Writing and Identity represents an extraordinary achievement in this field, taking our understanding of identity, location and representation to new levels.

486 citations

Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
202332
202265
202119
202032
201927
201830