{"product_id":"negative-liberties-cyrus-r-k-patell-9780822326694","title":"Negative Liberties: Morrison, Pynchon, and the Problem of Liberal Ideology","description":"Since the nineteenth century, ideas centered on the individual, on Emersonian self-reliance, and on the right of the individual to the pursuit of happiness have had a tremendous presence in the United States-and even more so after the Reagan era. But has this presence been for the good of all? In \u003ci\u003eNegative Liberties\u003c\/i\u003e Cyrus R. K. Patell revises important ideas in the debate about individualism and the political theory of liberalism. He does so by adding two new voices to the current discussion-Toni Morrison and Thomas Pynchon-to examine the different ways in which their writings embody, engage, and critique the official narrative generated by U.S. liberal ideology.\u003cbr\u003ePynchon and Morrison reveal the official narrative of individualism as encompassing a complex structure of contradiction held in abeyance. This narrative imagines that the goals of the individual are not at odds with the goals of the family or society and in fact obscures the existence of an unholy truce between individual liberty and forms of oppression. By bringing these two fiction writers into a discourse dominated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls, George Kateb, Robert Bellah, and Michael Sandel, Patell unmasks the ways in which contemporary U.S. culture has not fully shed the oppressive patterns of reasoning handed down by the slaveholding culture from which American individualism emerged.\u003cbr\u003eWith its interdisciplinary approach, \u003ci\u003eNegative Liberties\u003c\/i\u003e will appeal to \u003ci\u003es\u003c\/i\u003etudents and scholars of American literature, culture, sociology, and politics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Cyrus R. K. Patell\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0822326698\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780822326694\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Duke University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/28\/2001\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.83lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.56d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2002 pg. 881","brand":"Cyrus R. K. Patell","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48086968467711,"sku":"9780822326694","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_1070bf7e-e262-4a8e-afce-0d0ede59578f.jpg?v=1769097541","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/negative-liberties-cyrus-r-k-patell-9780822326694","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}