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Perfecting Friendship - Politics and Affiliation in Early American Literature (Paperback, New edition)
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Perfecting Friendship - Politics and Affiliation in Early American Literature (Paperback, New edition)
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Contemporary notions of friendship regularly place it in the
private sphere, associated with feminized forms of sympathy and
affection. As Ivy Schweitzer explains, however, this perception
leads to a misunderstanding of American history. In an exploration
of early American literature and culture, Schweitzer uncovers
friendships built on a classical model that is both public and
political in nature. Schweitzer begins with Aristotle's ideal of
""perfect"" friendship that positions freely chosen relationships
among equals as the highest realization of ethical, social, and
political bonds. Evidence in works by John Winthrop, Hannah Foster,
James Fenimore Cooper, and Catharine Sedgwick confirms that this
classical model shaped early American concepts of friendship and,
thus, democracy. Schweitzer argues that recognizing the centrality
of friendship as a cultural institution is critical to
understanding the rationales for consolidating power among white
males in the young nation. She also demonstrates how women,
nonelite groups, and minorities have appropriated and redefined the
discourse of perfect friendship, making equality its result rather
than its requirement. By recovering the public nature of
friendship, Schweitzer establishes discourse about affection and
affiliation as a central component of American identity and
democratic community.
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