Perfecting Friendship: Politics and Affiliation in Early American LiteratureContemporary notions of friendship regularly place it in the private sphere, associated with feminized forms of sympathy and affection. As Ivy Schweitzer explains, however, this perception leads to a misunderstanding of American history. In an exploration of early American literature and culture, Schweitzer uncovers friendships built on a classical model that is both public and political in nature. Schweitzer begins with Aristotle's ideal of "perfect" friendship that positions freely chosen relationships among equals as the highest realization of ethical, social, and political bonds. Evidence in works by John Winthrop, Hannah Foster, James Fenimore Cooper, and Catharine Sedgwick confirms that this classical model shaped early American concepts of friendship and, thus, democracy. Schweitzer argues that recognizing the centrality of friendship as a cultural institution is critical to understanding the rationales for consolidating power among white males in the young nation. She also demonstrates how women, nonelite groups, and minorities have appropriated and redefined the discourse of perfect friendship, making equality its result rather than its requirement. By recovering the public nature of friendship, Schweitzer establishes discourse about affection and affiliation as a central component of American identity and democratic community. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 52
Page 3
... masculine ideal for women but calls attention to the history of regarding friendship as an important form of social and public a≈liation. Although scholars have recently begun to pay more attention to friendship as a sociological trend ...
... masculine ideal for women but calls attention to the history of regarding friendship as an important form of social and public a≈liation. Although scholars have recently begun to pay more attention to friendship as a sociological trend ...
Page 7
... masculine tenderheartedness'' (9). Ellison focuses on ''the dilemmas of Whig masculinity,'' a heady brew of ''civic prestige and mutual friendship practiced by men of equally high social status'' laced with conspiratorial anxieties ...
... masculine tenderheartedness'' (9). Ellison focuses on ''the dilemmas of Whig masculinity,'' a heady brew of ''civic prestige and mutual friendship practiced by men of equally high social status'' laced with conspiratorial anxieties ...
Page 8
... masculine literary trajectory, Crain acknowledges that the subculture of women's friendships first detailed by Smith-Rosenberg was an important source for male writers who borrowed extensively from the feminine discourse of ...
... masculine literary trajectory, Crain acknowledges that the subculture of women's friendships first detailed by Smith-Rosenberg was an important source for male writers who borrowed extensively from the feminine discourse of ...
Page 10
... masculine form of friendship and democracy through the notion of equality as exemplified by the motto of the French Revolution: liberté, egalité, fraternité. Striking a similar note, Whitman asserts throughout his writing that democracy ...
... masculine form of friendship and democracy through the notion of equality as exemplified by the motto of the French Revolution: liberté, egalité, fraternité. Striking a similar note, Whitman asserts throughout his writing that democracy ...
Page 13
... masculine political invention'' that non-elites, people of color, and women in early American culture could and did appropriate. Through their adaptations, marginalized groups claimed admission to an exclusive discourse of a≈liation ...
... masculine political invention'' that non-elites, people of color, and women in early American culture could and did appropriate. Through their adaptations, marginalized groups claimed admission to an exclusive discourse of a≈liation ...
Contents
| 1 | |
| 27 | |
Familiar Commerce John Winthrops Modell of American Affiliation | 73 |
Hannah Webster Fosters Coquette Resurrecting Friendship from the Tomb of Marriage | 103 |
Eat Your Heart Out James Fenimore Coopers Male Romance and the American Myth of Interracial Friendship | 133 |
The Ethical Horizon of American Friendship in Catharine Sedgwicks Hope Leslie | 165 |
The Persistence of Second Selves | 207 |
Notes | 211 |
Works Cited | 239 |
Index | 259 |
Other editions - View all
Perfecting Friendship: Politics and Affiliation in Early American Literature Ivy Schweitzer No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
a√ection a≈liation According American amity appears argues Aristotle Aristotle’s association authority become body bond brothers calls century chapter character charity Christian cites classical connection considered contrast Cooper’s critics cultural death describes desire di√erence discourses discussion early echoes Eliza emerging emotion England English equality ethical Everell example expressed Faith feelings female figure final finds friendship gender gives hand Hawk-eye heart homosocial Hope human ideal ideas identity imagine implies important Indian interracial John language later letter Magawisca male marriage masculine means moral mutual narrative native natural notion novel o√ers passion perfect political practice produces Puritan reading relations relationship represents republican requires rhetoric romance rule Sedgwick sentimental shared ship similar sister social specifically sphere spiritual suggests sympathy theory thought tion understanding universal virtue vision Winthrop women writers
Popular passages
Page 104 - Hail wedded Love, mysterious law, true source Of human offspring, sole propriety In Paradise of all things common else. By thee adulterous lust was driven from men Among the bestial herds to range; by thee, Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure, Relations dear, and all the charities Of father, son, and brother first were known.
Page 103 - And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.
Page 133 - The parable of Pythagoras is dark, but true, " cor ne edito," — " eat not the heart." Certainly, if a man would give it a hard phrase, those that want friends to open themselves unto, are cannibals of their own hearts...
Page 41 - Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.
Page 50 - It is to the development, identification, and general prevalence of that fervid comradeship, (the adhesive love, at least rivaling the amative love hitherto possessing imaginative literature, if not going beyond it,) that I look for the counterbalance and offset of our materialistic and vulgar American democracy, and for the spiritualization thereof.
Page 78 - Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Page 171 - Yea even that which mischief meant most harm, Shall in the happy trial prove most glory: But evil on itself shall back recoil, And mix no more with goodness, when at last...
Page 52 - How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.
Page 103 - If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.
Page 82 - The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato's and other ancients, applauded by some of later times;— that the taking away of property, and bringing in community into a commonwealth, would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God.