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Voicing America

Language, Literary Form, and the Origins of the United States

Christopher Looby author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:11th Dec '97

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Voicing America cover

How is a nation brought into being? In a detailed examination of crucial texts of 18th-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 18th-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.

ISBN: 9780226492834

Dimensions: 22mm x 14mm x 2mm

Weight: 369g

295 pages