Negative Liberties: Morrison, Pynchon, and the Problem of Liberal IdeologyDuke University Press, 2001 M05 28 - 264 pages Since the nineteenth century, ideas centered on the individual, on Emersonian self-reliance, and on the right of the individual to the pursuit of happiness have had a tremendous presence in the United States—and even more so after the Reagan era. But has this presence been for the good of all? In Negative Liberties Cyrus R. K. Patell revises important ideas in the debate about individualism and the political theory of liberalism. He does so by adding two new voices to the current discussion—Toni Morrison and Thomas Pynchon—to examine the different ways in which their writings embody, engage, and critique the official narrative generated by U.S. liberal ideology. Pynchon and Morrison reveal the official narrative of individualism as encompassing a complex structure of contradiction held in abeyance. This narrative imagines that the goals of the individual are not at odds with the goals of the family or society and in fact obscures the existence of an unholy truce between individual liberty and forms of oppression. By bringing these two fiction writers into a discourse dominated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls, George Kateb, Robert Bellah, and Michael Sandel, Patell unmasks the ways in which contemporary U.S. culture has not fully shed the oppressive patterns of reasoning handed down by the slaveholding culture from which American individualism emerged. With its interdisciplinary approach, Negative Liberties will appeal to students and scholars of American literature, culture, sociology, and politics. |
Contents
ONE Narrating Individualism I | 1 |
Two Idealizing Individualism | 34 |
THREE Unenlightened Enlightenment | 82 |
Copyright | |
3 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract according American argues attempt become begins believe Bottom calls claims communitarian conception continues create critics culture death depicts describes dream effect Emerson Emersonian equal essay example existence experience eyes fact feeling fiction freedom give human idea ideal identity individualism individualist jazz justice Kateb kind later liberalism lives look meaning mind moral Morrison narrative nature negative liberty never novel Oedipa offers official original particular person philosophical political positive possession present principles protect Pynchon race Rawls realize reason refers relation represents rhetoric Sandel seeks seems self-reliance sense serve simply slave slavery social society story suggests Sula tells term theory things thought tion tradition turns U.S. culture understand United University values Vineland women writes