Democracy Growing Up: Authority, Autonomy, and Passion in Tocqueville's Democracy in America (SUNY Series in Political Theory: Contemporary Issues)

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. Finalist for the 2004 C.B. Macpherson Prize presented by the Canadian Political Science AssociationWinner of the Best First Book Award presented by the Foundations of Political Theory section of the American Political Science AssociationTocqueville'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. In this feminist reading of Tocqueville's famous Democracy in America, Janara (political science, U. of British Columbia) explores the familial and gendered imagery used in the text to discuss American democracy. She argues that a feminized image of stable aristocratic order is placed in opposition to an image of democracy as maleness, flux, indeterminancy. Furthermore, American democracy is symbolized in the Tocqueville's text as a "growing child-subject" achieving maturity away from a maternalized aristocracy as opposed to the French revolution which is portrayed as having had to commit matricide in order to be born. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In this feminist reading of Tocqueville's famous Democracy in America, Janara (political science, U. of British Columbia) explores the familial and gendered imagery used in the text to discuss American democracy. She argues that a feminized image of stable aristocratic order is placed in opposition to an image of democracy as maleness, flux, indeterminancy. Furthermore, American democracy is symbolized in the Tocqueville's text as a growing child-subject achieving maturity away from a maternalized aristocracy as opposed to the French revolution which is portrayed as having had to commit matricide in order to be born. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR