Thoreau's Democratic Withdrawal: Alienation, Participation, and Modernity (Studies in American Thought and Culture)

Best known for his two-year sojourn at Walden Pond in Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau is often considered a recluse who emerged from solitude only occasionally to take a stand on the issues of his day. In Thoreau’s Democratic Withdrawal, Shannon L. Mariotti explores Thoreau’s nature writings to offer a new way of understanding the unique politics of the so-called hermit of Walden Pond. Drawing imaginatively from the twentieth-century German social theorist Theodor W. Adorno, she shows how withdrawal from the public sphere can paradoxically be a valuable part of democratic politics. Separated by time, space, and context, Thoreau and Adorno share a common belief that critical inquiry is essential to democracy but threatened by modern society. While walking, huckleberrying, and picking wild apples, Thoreau tries to recover the capacities for independent perception and thought that are blunted by “Main Street,” conventional society, and the rapidly industrializing world that surrounded him. Adorno’s thoughts on particularity and the microscopic gaze he employs to work against the alienated experience of modernity help us better understand the value of Thoreau’s excursions into nature. Reading Thoreau with Adorno, we see how periodic withdrawals from public spaces are not necessarily apolitical or apathetic but can revitalize our capacity for the critical thought that truly defines democracy. In graceful, readable prose, Mariotti reintroduces us to a celebrated American thinker, offers new insights on Adorno, and highlights the striking common ground they share. Their provocative and challenging ideas, she shows, still hold lessons on how we can be responsible citizens in a society that often discourages original, critical analysis of public issues. Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Preface: Reclaiming Spaces of Withdrawal for Democratic Politics......Page 12 Introduction: Reading Thoreau with Adorno......Page 22 Part 1 - Two Interlocutors for Thoreau: Adorno and Emerson......Page 50 1 Damaged Life, the Microscopic Gaze, and Adorno’s Practice of Negative Dialectics......Page 52 2 Alienated Existence, Focal Distancing, and Emerson’s Transcendental Idealism......Page 77 Part 2 - Thoreau’s Democratic Withdrawal......Page 102 3 Man as Machine: Thoreau and Modern Alienation......Page 104 4 Huckleberrying toward Democracy: Thoreau’s Practices of Withdrawal......Page 136 5 Traveling Away from Home: Thoreau’s Spaces of Withdrawal......Page 164 Conclusion: Alienation and the Anti-Foundationalist Foundation of the Self......Page 186 Notes......Page 192 Bibliography......Page 220 Index......Page 230 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Preface: Reclaiming Spaces of Withdrawal for Democratic Politics 12 Introduction: Reading Thoreau with Adorno 22 Part 1 - Two Interlocutors for Thoreau: Adorno and Emerson 50 1 Damaged Life, the Microscopic Gaze, and Adorno’s Practice of Negative Dialectics 52 2 Alienated Existence, Focal Distancing, and Emerson’s Transcendental Idealism 77 Part 2 - Thoreau’s Democratic Withdrawal 102 3 Man as Machine: Thoreau and Modern Alienation 104 4 Huckleberrying toward Democracy: Thoreau’s Practices of Withdrawal 136 5 Traveling Away from Home: Thoreau’s Spaces of Withdrawal 164 Conclusion: Alienation and the Anti-Foundationalist Foundation of the Self 186 Notes 192 Bibliography 220 Index 230 9780299233945 Best known for his two-year sojourn at Walden Pond in Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau is often considered a recluse who emerged from solitude only occasionally to take a stand on the issues of his day. This book explores Thoreau's nature writings to offer a way of understanding the unique politics of the so-called hermit of Walden Pond.