Imagining Equality in Nineteenth-Century American Literature [Hardcover]

An exploration of the theme of equality in Stowe, Douglass, Hawthorne, Alcott and others.In this study, Larson reads the literature of the pre-Civil War United States against Tocqueville's theories of equality. Imagining Equality tests these theories in the work of a broad array of authors and genres, and in doing so discovers important new themes in Stowe, Hawthorne, Douglass and Alcott.In this study, Larson reads the literature of the pre-Civil War United States against Tocqueville's theories of equality. Imagining Equality tests these theories in the work of a broad array of authors and genres, and in doing so discovers important new themes in Stowe, Hawthorne, Douglass and Alcott.The theme of inequality has often dominated academic criticism, which has been concerned with identifying, analyzing, and demystifying various regimes of power and the illicit hierarchies upon which they are built. Studies of the United States in the nineteenth century have followed this trend in focusing on slavery, women's writing, and working-class activism. Kerry Larson advocates the importance of looking instead at equality as a central theme, viewing it not as an endangered ideal to strive for and protect but as an imagined social reality in its own right, one with far-reaching consequences. In this original study, he reads the literature of the pre-Civil War United States against Tocqueville's theories of equality. Imagining Equality tests these theories in the work of a broad array of authors and genres, both canonical and non-canonical, and in doing so discovers important themes in Stowe, Hawthorne, Douglass and Alcott.Introduction; Part I. Indestructible Equality: 1. The defenseless enemy; 2. Inequality in theory; Part II. The Many in the One: 3. The precise spirit of the average mass; 4. Comparatively speaking; Part III. Equal but Separate: 5. Transcending friendships; 6. The common condition. [Larson's] book breaks new ground in exploring revolutionary literary imagining in lÓ6