Dartmouth College Press, 2010 eISBN: 978-1-58465-942-6 | Paper: 978-1-58465-933-4 | Cloth: 978-1-58465-932-7 Library of Congress Classification B105.B64H47 2010 Dewey Decimal Classification 128.6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Bernd Herzogenrath’s An American Body|Politic is a study of the intersection between the material, biological body and body as political and cultural metaphor in American politics, religion, literature, and popular culture. Deeply influenced by the thought of Gilles Deleuze, Herzogenrath’s approach to American culture encompasses endless possibilities and potentials, eschewing the mechanic and structural. He traipses through American history and culture, pausing to examine such varied facets as the Puritans’ “two bodies,” Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy, Cotton Mather and smallpox, the poetics|politics of Whitman, Henry Adams’s stroll along the shores of complexity, and the Detroit-based techno music of today.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
BERND HERZOGENRATH is a professor of American studies at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. He is the author of An Art of Desire: Reading Paul Auster, and the editor of From Virgin Land to Disney World: Nature and Its Discontents in the USA of Yesterday and Today, The Films of Tod Browning, Deleuze & Ecology, and Edgar G. Ulmer: Essays on the King of the B’s.
REVIEWS
“The strength of this book lies in its theoretical contributions, which are illuminating, invigorating and highly suggestive. An American Body | Politic is a profound and important work that is recommended heartily.”—Journal of American Studies
“How interinvolved are bodies and politics? What human sensitivities enable us to probe such imbrications? What happens if they are blocked? Bernd Herzogenrath explores these issues as he brings Gilles Deleuze to bear to probe the pretexts and contexts of work by Americans such as Cotton Mather, Walt Whitman, and Henry Adams. An exciting, creative and indispensable book!”—William E. Connolly, author of A World of Becoming
“This is a wonderful book, an amazing book. It gets right to the heart of things: the intersection of the corporeal and the political, the social and the psychological in the plans and aspirations, the polemics and disease, the slavery and war, the love and hope that mark our history, literature, and politics, our very lives, individual and communal. The intelligence and scope of the argument is truly impressive. It will teach Deleuzians about America and Americanists about Deleuze. A deep, rich, wide-ranging, and important book that I highly recommend.”—John Protevi, Professor, Department of French Studies, Louisiana State University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations • Acknowledgments • Introduction • Body|Theory|Politic: Body|Theory • The Puritans’ Two Bodies • A “‘Physics’ Of Power”: Phase Transitions and Turbulence in the Antinomian Controversy • Cotton Mather: The Angel and the Animalcula • “I Am The Poet Of Little Things”: Walt Whitman and Minor Poetics|Politics • A Physical Theory Of Heredity|Heresy: The Education of Henry Adams • “A Sonorous People”: Techno|Music and the Joyful Body|Politic • Conclusion • Notes • Bibliography • Index
Dartmouth College Press, 2010 eISBN: 978-1-58465-942-6 Paper: 978-1-58465-933-4 Cloth: 978-1-58465-932-7
Bernd Herzogenrath’s An American Body|Politic is a study of the intersection between the material, biological body and body as political and cultural metaphor in American politics, religion, literature, and popular culture. Deeply influenced by the thought of Gilles Deleuze, Herzogenrath’s approach to American culture encompasses endless possibilities and potentials, eschewing the mechanic and structural. He traipses through American history and culture, pausing to examine such varied facets as the Puritans’ “two bodies,” Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy, Cotton Mather and smallpox, the poetics|politics of Whitman, Henry Adams’s stroll along the shores of complexity, and the Detroit-based techno music of today.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
BERND HERZOGENRATH is a professor of American studies at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. He is the author of An Art of Desire: Reading Paul Auster, and the editor of From Virgin Land to Disney World: Nature and Its Discontents in the USA of Yesterday and Today, The Films of Tod Browning, Deleuze & Ecology, and Edgar G. Ulmer: Essays on the King of the B’s.
REVIEWS
“The strength of this book lies in its theoretical contributions, which are illuminating, invigorating and highly suggestive. An American Body | Politic is a profound and important work that is recommended heartily.”—Journal of American Studies
“How interinvolved are bodies and politics? What human sensitivities enable us to probe such imbrications? What happens if they are blocked? Bernd Herzogenrath explores these issues as he brings Gilles Deleuze to bear to probe the pretexts and contexts of work by Americans such as Cotton Mather, Walt Whitman, and Henry Adams. An exciting, creative and indispensable book!”—William E. Connolly, author of A World of Becoming
“This is a wonderful book, an amazing book. It gets right to the heart of things: the intersection of the corporeal and the political, the social and the psychological in the plans and aspirations, the polemics and disease, the slavery and war, the love and hope that mark our history, literature, and politics, our very lives, individual and communal. The intelligence and scope of the argument is truly impressive. It will teach Deleuzians about America and Americanists about Deleuze. A deep, rich, wide-ranging, and important book that I highly recommend.”—John Protevi, Professor, Department of French Studies, Louisiana State University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations • Acknowledgments • Introduction • Body|Theory|Politic: Body|Theory • The Puritans’ Two Bodies • A “‘Physics’ Of Power”: Phase Transitions and Turbulence in the Antinomian Controversy • Cotton Mather: The Angel and the Animalcula • “I Am The Poet Of Little Things”: Walt Whitman and Minor Poetics|Politics • A Physical Theory Of Heredity|Heresy: The Education of Henry Adams • “A Sonorous People”: Techno|Music and the Joyful Body|Politic • Conclusion • Notes • Bibliography • Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC