Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Constitution and American Literature
I: The Constitution as a Secular Revelation
1. At the Beginning
2. The Path to Union
3. The People, Having Spoken, Speak
4. Almost a Miracle
5. The Paradox of Secular Revelation
II: An American Literary Renaissance
6. Declarations of American Literary Independence
7. Preserving the Revelation
8. Preserving the Paradox
9. The Literary Renaissance of Secular Revelation
10. Essays in Time
11. A Poetic Form for Straying
12. Clinging to Narrative
13. Confidence and the Darkness of Revelation
Conclusion: The Literary Art of Uniting States
Notes
Index