American Enchantment: Rituals of the People in the Post-Revolutionary World
Book summary:
The demise of the monarchy and the bodily absence of a King caused a representational crisis in the early republic, forcing the American people to reconstruct the social symbolic order in a new and unfamiliar way. Social historians have routinely understood the Revolution and the early republic as projects dedicated to and productive of reason, with "the people" as an orderly and sensible collective at odds with the volatile and unthinking crowd. American Enchantment rejects this traditionally held vision of a rational public sphere, arguing that early Americans dealt with the post-monarchical crisis by engaging in "civil mysticism," not systematic discussion and debate. By evaluating a wide range of social and political rituals and literary and cultural discourses, Sizemore shows how "enchantment" becomes a vital mode of enacting the people after the demise of traditional monarchical forms. In works by Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, Catharine Sedgwick, and Nathaniel Hawthorne--as well as in Delaware oral histories, accounts of George Washington's inauguration, and Methodist conversion narratives--enchantment is an experience uniquely capable of producing new forms of popular power and social affiliation. Recognizing the role of enchantment in constituting the people overturns some of the most common-sense assumptions in the post-revolutionary world: above all, that the people are not simply a flesh-and-blood substance, but also a mystical force.
Praise:
Quote:
"Sizemore achieves no small feat: advancing an important original contribution to the large body of political theory on the paradox of the people."
Credit:
Jennifer Greiman, Wake Forest University
Quote:
"A strikingly original reimagining of American literary nationalism in the long nineteenth century."
Credit:
Thomas Allen, University of Ottawa
Quote:
"It's an elegant, mature, and well-baked argument, an impressive book, one that insists we take seriously how political practice and theory in the early nation was galvanized both by new republicanism and new evangelicalism. And it's going to make a big impact on the field.
Credit:
Dana D. Nelson, Vanderbilt University
Bio:
Short bio:
Michelle Sizemore is Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky. She is the author of American Enchantment: Rituals of the People in the Post-Revolutionary World (Oxford, 2018). Her book argues that “enchantment" became a vital mode of enacting the people after the demise of traditional monarchical forms and investigates this phenomenon throughout a wide range of social and political rituals and literary and cultural discourses. She has published articles and reviews in American Literary History, Legacy, Studies in American Fiction, and other venues.
A&S department affiliation:
Book URL:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/american-enchantment-9780190627539?cc=us&lang=en&
