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.

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.

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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.

Description based on print version record.