Description
Book SynopsisExplores the complex and dynamic ways in which emotions shape the post-World War II writing of the United States and argues that reading these narratives for their affects is to read for the emotional work that takes place between the part and the whole.
Trade ReviewDowland shows us new ways to engage Americanist criticism and to understand and respond to the political extremes that threaten democracy in the United States today. Creative, insightful, and generous,
Weak Nationalisms is important for critics and citizens who believe in the imaginative possibilities of reading as a means to positively attach to our world, even to our nationalisms."" - Christopher Castiglia, author of
The Practices of Hope: Literary Criticism in Disenchanted Times""In
Weak Nationalisms, Douglas Dowland shows how largely a figure of speech - synecdoche - figures in the affective dimension of nationalism. . . . But where many studies of nationalism stress the obscured means through which these affective ties work, Dowland finds most interesting the `unmediated, tactile, sensuous engagement with the emotions' evident in the nonfiction works he considers. With its interest in the persistence of national affect,
Weak Nationalisms is a timely and important study."" - Priscilla Wald, R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English at Duke University
""How have citizens of the United States historically understood their relationship to the nation? The answer
Weak Nationalisms gives is both elegantly specific and broadly compelling. This book is smart and timely. It draws out some of the most pressing issues Americans are currently tangling with in everyday life. It is an engaging, well-executed, and important book."" - Rachel Greenwald Smith, author of
Affect and American Literature in the Age of Neoliberalism""
Weak Nationalisms makes visible a vibrant and underappreciated trajectory of literary nonfiction about the United States. Douglas Dowland effectively and persuasively presents the ways in which a range of writers negotiate a mode of nationalistic feeling that embraces core tenets of American liberalism, while resisting and questioning the hierarchies that we often associate with nationalism. The book offers a refreshing and timely reflection on the uses of `weak nationalism' in our time."" - Daniel Worden, author of
Masculine Style: The American West and Literary ModernismTable of ContentsIntroduction: Affected Readers in an Imagined Community
1. Moodiness: The Everyday America of Beauvoir’s
America Day by Day 2. Curiosity and its Discontents: Steinbeck’s
Travels with Charley and
America and Americans 3. Hopefulness:
On the Road with Charles Kuralt 4. Incredulity: Reading Sarah Vowell
Conclusion: Affected Critics: the Nation and the Limits of Critique
Works Cited
