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May 10, 2008
BOOK REVIEWS FOR MY THESIS
In an attempt to give myself a much needed kick in the pants (how? I don’t know), I decided to engage in the solipsistic exercise of WRITING BLURBS ABOUT MY UNFINISHED THESIS. These reviews suggest that my thesis is trenchant, innovative, groundbreaking, controversial, and “powerfully demonstrates how the linguistic cohabits with the political” – a line stolen from the back of a book that is called “challenging” and “dramatical.” And it suggests that my thesis is, most importantly, finished.
I’ve found that writing these blurbs is a mix between using hyperbole, complicated words, and proving that you are, basically, a crank who hates everything good and did not read the book you are reviewing.
Here goes:
From American Literature:
“Andrew Black’s unconventional reading of THE FEDERALIST PAPERS challenges traditional paradigms of deliberative rhetoric. Black’s effort to uncover an unseen narrative project that combines the discursive with the literary and technical innovations of its day offers a new rubric for those wishing to study the rhetoric of colonial America. In his reconstitution of the Federalist project, Black rehabilitates the founders from readings strictly political or theoretical, and liberates them from pre-defined limits. It is a bold project, undertaken with grace, perspicuity, and humility.”
From Political Theory
“Remarkable that a doctoral thesis both broadens and enlivens discursive debates and allows for a recategorization of familiar terms. What Black does is more remarkable because he does not appear to have set out to do it: a vertical reading where previously only horizontal analyses needed apply. It is shaking the dust off some stodgy old criticism, and reviving a text that should have been brought to life long before. Black’s energy and dedication to this project reminds us that theory doesn’t have to be combined to the abstract, and allows us to rethink the Enlightenment on terms at once organic and uniquely traditional.”
From Philosophy and Rhetoric
“Habermasians everywhere will be up and arms by this infiltration by one of their own. Black recognizes public sphere debates while putting his own unique spin on them – reading the public sphere through its literature rather than the traditional reactionary methodology. In doing so, he has (perhaps unintentionally) inspired a new generation of scholars to reimagine political texts based on orthodoxy rather than hegemony (a move that’s no so much bold as confoundingly original). By resisting linguistic trends and reading a revered text at once within and outside of the terms of its own reverence, Black shows us why the Federalists and their long-ignored papers deserve canonical acclaim and critical focus.”
From Rhetoric Review:
“Black’s new critical take on THE FEDERALIST PAPERS is less a textual analysis than a discursive manifesto and a line drawn in theoretical sands. By arguing across traditions and critical fields, he challenges the Pocockian legacy of theoretical vocabularies and argues for a legacy of civic rhetoric that at once dismisses spheroidal thinking and understands its theoretical legacy and primacy. What makes for an at-times schizophrenic read (it was originally conceived as a Masters thesis) finds Black the critic, reader, and historian making fascinating claims substantiated by his belief in the validity of his project.”
From The New Republic:
“When Black argues that THE FEDERALIST PAPERS must be read by students of literature, he opens up colonial debates to new eyes. An articulate rethinking of age-old deliberation, students of American Literature will benefit from Black’s successful claim for addition to a long-closed anthology, one that paradoxically argues the fictional Publius as the key rhetorician of his time.”
From Law and Literature:
“I didn’t much care for the book (because I didn’t read it), but I did enjoy the author’s picture on the book jacket. Yamahama! What a hunk! Move over Slavov Zizek, you’ve got some competition for ‘Best Looking Cultural Theorist’.”
| By Andytown | 08:28 AM
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Comments
From Cat Whiskers and Unicorns
Black's writing has none of the typical hooplah typically associated with the FEDERALIST PAPERS. Not once does he mention Beanie Babies or any kind of digital pet. It seems he uses big words such as "occasionally" and "unexpected" for not other purpose other than to confound the reader. For the above reasons we can only give him two out of twelve cat whiskers and can award him no unicorn horns. The two cat whiskers are because of the posters of Adams and Hamilton holding kitties and the "EAT MY SHORTS, DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS" bumper stickers included as an insert to the publication.
Posted by: meerkat at May 13, 2008 09:03 AM