Democracy Growing Up

Authority, Autonomy, and Passion in Tocqueville's Democracy in America

Häftad, Engelska, 2002

449 kr

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The first sustained feminist interpretation of Tocqueville's classic, Democracy in America.Finalist for the 2004 C.B. Macpherson Prize presented by the Canadian Political Science Association Winner of the Best First Book Award presented by the Foundations of Political Theory section of the American Political Science Association Tocqueville's Democracy in America continues to be widely read, but for all this familiarity, the vivid imagery with which he conveys his ideas has been overlooked, left to act with unexamined force upon readers' imaginations. In this first sustained feminist reading of Democracy in America Laura Janara assesses the dramatic feminine, masculine, and infantile metaphorical figures that represent the historical political drama that is Tocqueville's primary topic. These tropes are analyzed as both historical artifacts and symbols for psychoanalytic interpretation, deepening and complicating the standing interpretations of Tocqueville's work. Democracy Growing Up comments critically upon the peculiar gendered and familial foundations of modern Western democracy and upon the notion of democratic maturity that Tocqueville offers us.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2002-09-12
Mått151 x 233 x 15 mm
Vikt363 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieSUNY series in Political Theory: Contemporary Issues
Antal sidor266
FörlagState University of New York Press
ISBN9780791454428

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Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION 1. "THE KEY TO ALMOST THE WHOLE WORK" French and U.S. DiscourseInterpreting Tocqueville's Imagery: A Psychoanalytic FrameworkWhat Tocqueville Fears: Democracy's Three PotentialitiesThe AbyssInterpreting Tocquevilles' Imagery: Tocqueville in HistoryDinnerstein's Theory and Tocqueville's DemocracyDiagnosing the Democratic Psyche 2. GENEALOGY, BIRTH, AND GROWTH Democracy in France: Urchin OrphanDemocracy in America: Wilderness ExpectingSaginaw: A Scarcely Formed EmbryoMother EnglandResisting the Mother: Democracy as Adolescent 3. ADOLESCENCE AND MATURITY AdolescenceManliness or Individualism?Democracy in SchoolPassion for Equality's CharmsReligion, Mores, Morality: Female Bulwark for MaturityDemocratic Maturity? 4. HOMO PUER ROBUSTUS: PROPERTY, COMMERCE, INDUSTRY The Impulse for EnterpriseAnxiety and Unsated DesireExploiting the Land, Fearing the Flesh, Ennobling MoneyMoney, Marriage, and Manly CitizenshipMiddle Class Desire and the Stilling of PoliticsWorkers, Owners, and the Veil of ContractThe State as Parent 5. IMPOTENCE AND INFANTILISM Hypermasculine IndividualismPublic Opinion: Elle mène le mondeFemale Administration: Male GovernmentThe Guardian StateInfantilism and Impotence 6. DEMOCRACY'S FAMILY VALUES Democracy as Self-Mastery: Fathers, Sons, and BrothersGirls: Democracy's Shadow FiguresFear and Desire: Containing the American WomanMarriage and Sex: Resurrecting OrderDemocracy's Gender and Family Foundations CONCLUSION: FAMILY, GENDER, AND DEMOCRATIC MATURITY Notes Bibliography Index

"Janara … provides us with a key to Tocqueville's subconscious thoughts based on his language, which is rich in the imagery of familial and gender relationships. She does this in a nuanced, original and convincing way." — Perspectives on Politics"Democracy Growing Up consistently illuminates the hitherto undiscussed gender structure and entailments of Tocqueville's commentaries and has lots of surprising things to say on other specific aspects of his thought. It is a provocative and substantial contribution to the literature on Tocqueville." — Mark T. Reinhardt, Williams College