Voicing America: Language, Literary Form, and the Origins of the United States (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226492834)

How is a nation brought into being? In a detailed examination of crucial texts of eighteenth-century American literature, Christopher Looby argues that the United States was self-consciously enacted through the spoken word. Historical material informs and animates theoretical texts by Derrida, Lacan, and others as Looby unravels the texts of Benjamin Franklin, Charles Brockden Brown, and Hugh Henry Brackenridge and connects them to nation-building, political discourse, and self-creation. Correcting the strong emphasis on the importance of print culture in eighteenth-century America, Voicing America uncovers the complex process of early American writers articulating their new nation and reveals a body of literature and a political discourse thoroughly concerned with the power of vocal language.


Author: Christopher Looby
ISBN-10: 0226492834
ISBN-13: 9780226492834
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 01/01/1998
Pages: 295
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 8.51h x 5.46w x 0.72d