Front cover image for Secular revelations : the Constitution of the United States and classic American literature

Secular revelations : the Constitution of the United States and classic American literature

"The United States Constitution, battleground of a politically divided nation and sponsor of that nation's now threatened cultural unity, is a quintessentially political document. Elected officials swear loyalty to it, and U.S. soldiers die for it. Yet no one has ever seriously considered the formative influence this document, so central for all Americans, has had on American cultural life. In this book, Mitchell Meltzer has for the first time demonstrated the extent to which the Constitution is both source and inspiration for America's greatest literary masterworks."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2005
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2005
Criticism, interpretation, etc
x, 192 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780674019126, 0674019121
58920051
Introduction : the Constitution and American literature
At the beginning
The path to Union
The people, having spoken, speak
Almost a miracle
The paradox of secular revelation
Declarations of American literary independence
Preserving the revelation
Preserving the paradox
The literary renaissance of secular revelation
Essays in time
A poetic form for straying
Clinging to narrative
Confidence and the darkness of revelation
Conclusion : the literary art of uniting states