Shock and Awe : American Exceptionalism and the Imperatives of the Spectacle in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court /

Spanos, William V.

Shock and Awe : American Exceptionalism and the Imperatives of the Spectacle in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court / William V. Spanos. - 1 online resource (240 pages). - Re-Mapping the Transnational : A Dartmouth Series in American Studies . - Book collections on Project MUSE. .

American Exceptionalism : A Genealogy -- A Connecticut Yankee as American Jeremiad : The Historical Context -- Americanist Criticism of A Connecticut Yankee : A Critical History -- Staging the Spectacle : A Contrapuntal Reading of A Connecticut Yankee -- A Connecticut Yankee and America’s "War on Terror" : Thinking the Spectacle.

Open Access

Inspired by the foreign policy entanglements of the early twenty-first century, the author offers a dramatic interpretation of Twain's classic A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, providing an assessment of American exceptionalism and the place of a global America in the American imaginary. The author asserts that Twain identifies with his protagonist, particularly in his defining use of the spectacle, and thus with an American exceptionalism that uncannily anticipates the George W. Bush administration's normalization of the state of exception and the imperial policy of "preemptive war," unilateral "regime change," and "shock and awe" tactics.


English.

9781611684636


Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court.
Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court.


Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court (Twain, Mark)


National characteristics, American, in literature.
HUMOR--General.
LITERARY CRITICISM--American--General.
National characteristics, American, in literature.


Electronic books.