Accustomed to Agreement: The Transformation of American Symbolic Construction

Author: (American) Sacvan Bercovitch
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This book begins with an overview of America (, chapters 1 and 2), then describes how the Puritans created a rhetoric suited to their needs (chapter 3), and provides a detailed analysis of the life and works of Cotton Mather, the author of the American epic (chapter 4). The following two chapters discuss the transformation of Puritan rhetoric from the mid-18th century through the Revolution to the Jacksonian era. The main figures are Jonathan Edwards, the leader of the Great Awakening, and the national historian George Bancroft, whose works provided the primary source for myth-making in the early decades of the new republic. I then turn to more complex literary treatments of myth. In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (chapter 7), I read the classic pattern of symbolic methods in American consensus. In Melville's Pierre (chapter 8), I see the profound critique of that symbolism. In Emerson's essays (chapter 9), I explore the development of the influential aspect of the American way—individualism theory—I call these issues more complex because they are presented within works of art, where ritual and ideology can be easily understood together, but literary imagination adds another dimension to analysis. The author begins with an overview of America (, chapters 1 and 2), then describes how the Puritans created a rhetoric suited to their needs (chapter 3), and provides a detailed analysis of the life and works of Cotton Mather, the author of the American epic (chapter 4). The following two chapters discuss the transformation of Puritan rhetoric from the mid-18th century through the Revolution to the Jacksonian era. The main figures are Jonathan Edwards, the leader of the Great Awakening, and the national historian George Bancroft, whose works provided the primary source for myth-making in the early decades of the new republic. The author then turns to more complex literary treatments of myth. In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (chapter 7), the classic pattern of symbolic methods in American consensus is introduced. In Melville's Pierre (chapter 8), the profound critique of that symbolism can be seen. In Emerson's essays (chapter 9), the author explores the development of the influential aspect of the American way—individualism theory. The author chose them precisely because they express three different directions in the American literary tradition. In the final chapter, the author outlines the debates among American scholars and critics—about consensus and difference, inclusion and subversion—debates that record the cultural and intellectual journey of the past few decades.