具體描述
Ever since the founders drafted "We the People," "we" have been at pains to work out the contradictions in their formulation, to fix in words precisely what it means to be American. "Constituting Americans" rethinks the way that certain writers of the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century contributed to this project; in doing so, it revises the traditional narrative of U.S. literary history, restoring an essential chapter to the story of an emerging American cultural identity. In diverse ways, very different writers--including Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Harriet Wilson, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Gertrude Stein--participated in the construction and dissemination of an American identity, but none was entirely at ease in the culture they all helped to define. Evident in their work is a haunting sense of their telling someone else's story, a discomfort that Priscilla Wald reads in the context of legal and political debates about citizenship and personhood that marked the emergence of the United States as a nation and a world power.
From early-nineteenth-century Supreme Court cases to turn-of-the-century Jim Crow and immigration legislation, from the political speeches of Abraham Lincoln to the historical work of Woodrow Wilson, nation-builders addressed the legal, political, and historical paradoxes of American identity. Against the backdrop of their efforts, Wald shows how works such as Douglass's autobiographical narratives, Melville's "Pierre," Wilson's "Our Nig," Du Bois's "The Souls of Black Folks," and Stein's "The Making of Americans" responded, through formal innovations, to the aggressive demands for literary participation in the building of that nation. The conversation that emerges among these literary works challenges the definitions and genres that largely determine not only what works are read, but also how they are read in classrooms in the United States today.
Offering insight into the relationship of storytelling to national identity, "Constituting Americans" will compel the attention of those with an interest in American literature, American studies, and cultural studies.
著者簡介
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這本書，坦白說，剛拿到手的時候，我還有點摸不著頭腦。封麵設計得相當樸實，沒有那些花裏鬍哨的圖畫，就隻是沉靜的文字，讓人感覺它可能是一本嚴肅的學術著作，或者是一部晦澀難懂的理論集。我帶著一絲好奇和些許不安翻開瞭第一頁，沒想到，它以一種近乎口語化的方式，慢慢地將我帶入瞭一個宏大而又細微的世界。作者的敘事節奏把握得極佳，仿佛是在你耳邊低語，講述著那些被曆史洪流衝刷、卻又深刻影響瞭我們當代生活的點點滴滴。它沒有直接給齣爆炸性的結論，而是像一位經驗豐富的嚮導，帶著你穿梭於不同的曆史場景之間，讓你親眼見證那些看似無關緊要的決定是如何一步步塑造瞭今日的社會結構和文化心理。我尤其欣賞它在處理復雜議題時所展現齣的那種剋製而又深刻的洞察力，它不急於批判，而是先讓你去感受、去理解那個時代背景下的無奈與掙紮。讀完前幾章，我明顯感覺到自己看待身邊事物的視角開始發生微妙的偏移，不再是簡單地接受既有事實，而是忍不住去追溯其背後的根源和演變軌跡。這種潛移默化的影響，纔是真正優秀書籍的魅力所在，它不是強行灌輸，而是啓發思考。
评分這本書的魅力，很大程度上來源於它對“過程”的強調，而非僅僅是“結果”。很多曆史書籍熱衷於梳理清晰的因果鏈條，最終導嚮一個清晰的終點。然而，這本書卻著重描繪瞭那些在構建過程中充滿的模棱兩可、充滿妥協、甚至帶有偶然性的瞬間。它像一部慢鏡頭紀錄片，讓你看清楚那些看似一蹴而就的社會規範，背後其實是無數次拉鋸、無數次誤解、無數次不情願的聯手。這種敘事手法，極大地削弱瞭曆史的宿命感，反而凸顯瞭人類能動性的復雜性。我在閱讀時，時常會産生一種“原來如此”的恍然大悟，但這個“如此”並非指作者給齣瞭一個簡單的答案，而是指我理解瞭“為什麼沒有一個簡單的答案”。這種對復雜性的擁抱，使得這本書擁有瞭一種曆久彌新的生命力，即便數年後重讀，那些關於妥協與共識的細節依然能提供新的解讀空間。
评分說實話，這本書的閱讀門檻其實不低，但絕對值得投入時間去啃。它所涉及的跨學科知識麵非常廣，涉及法理學、社會人類學乃至一些邊緣的文化符號學，但作者的闡釋技巧高明之處就在於，他總能找到一個最容易被大眾理解的“切入點”來解釋深奧的理論。它不是那種故作高深的學術炫技，而是將復雜的理論“去魅化”，轉化為我們日常生活中的真實睏境和選擇。我特彆喜歡書中處理衝突的方式，它從不急於站隊，而是盡可能地還原每一個立場背後的曆史閤理性，即便這些立場最終導緻瞭痛苦的撕裂。這種平衡的姿態，在如今這個信息碎片化、觀點極化的時代顯得尤為珍貴。它教會我的不是“該相信什麼”，而是“如何去思考那些我們習以為常的結構是如何被構建起來的”。每讀完一個章節，我都會感到一種莫名的充實感，那種感覺就像是智力上經曆瞭一場酣暢淋灕的拉練，身體雖然略感疲憊，但精神卻異常清醒和敏銳。
评分這本書的行文風格變化多端，簡直像一部精心編排的交響樂。有時候，它會突然切換到一種近乎新聞報道的緊湊和犀利，用紮實的史料和精煉的語言，將一段段曆史事件剖析得入木三分，讓人腎上腺素飆升，仿佛身臨其境地參與瞭那些關鍵的辯論與衝突。但緊接著，它又會像一位老者，語重心長地轉入一種充滿哲學思辨的沉靜敘述，探討抽象概念如何落地為具體的社會實踐。這種節奏的張弛有度，使得閱讀過程充滿瞭驚喜，完全沒有一般曆史著作那種可能齣現的單調乏味感。我發現自己常常需要停下來，反復琢磨某一句措辭精妙的總結，或者某一處看似不經意的曆史對比。特彆是作者對於不同群體聲音的捕捉，那種細膩到令人心驚的程度，讓人不得不佩服其做田野調查的功力，或是對檔案挖掘的執著。它不是在寫“大曆史”，而是在挖掘那些支撐著“大曆史”的、由無數個體意誌和日常習慣交織而成的“小世界”，並且成功地證明瞭這兩者之間密不可分的關聯性。
评分如果用一個詞來形容這本書給我的最大感受，那就是“深度共鳴”。它談論的議題，雖然植根於特定的時間與地點，但其中探討的人類在麵對身份認同、權力分配以及集體敘事建構時的那種普遍焦慮和掙紮，卻是超越時空的。作者的文筆有一種獨特的磁性，它能夠穿透錶麵的曆史事件，直接觸及到人性中最核心的那些驅動力。我發現自己不僅是在閱讀曆史，更像是在閱讀關於“我們是誰”的深度訪談錄。最讓我印象深刻的是，書中對某些關鍵轉摺點的描繪，並非是基於英雄主義的史詩敘事，而是充滿瞭人間煙火氣和現實考量，那些推動曆史前行的，往往是那些最不引人注目、卻又最務實的算計和妥協。這種還原真實的筆觸，給予讀者一種強烈的代入感，讓人對過去産生一種既敬畏又親近的復雜情感，也讓我對自己所處的現實環境有瞭更深層次的理解和審視的勇氣。
评分“the anxiety surrounding the conceptualization of personhood that these authors confronted as they sought to tell, represent, and analyze untold stories: what had been suppressed and repressed by official stories of We the People”
评分“the anxiety surrounding the conceptualization of personhood that these authors confronted as they sought to tell, represent, and analyze untold stories: what had been suppressed and repressed by official stories of We the People”
评分“the anxiety surrounding the conceptualization of personhood that these authors confronted as they sought to tell, represent, and analyze untold stories: what had been suppressed and repressed by official stories of We the People”
评分“the anxiety surrounding the conceptualization of personhood that these authors confronted as they sought to tell, represent, and analyze untold stories: what had been suppressed and repressed by official stories of We the People”
评分“the anxiety surrounding the conceptualization of personhood that these authors confronted as they sought to tell, represent, and analyze untold stories: what had been suppressed and repressed by official stories of We the People”
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