Outcast Patriotism: The Dilemma of Negative Instruction in "The Man Without a Country"

This essay examines the generic and political underpinnings of the tradition of negative (non-imitative) instruction in U.S. literature through a reassessment of Edward Everett Hale's patriotic tale, "The Man Without a Country" (1863). I argue that, despite the story's reputation for political dogmatism, it evinces extraordinary ambivalence about both the culpability of its treacherous protagonist and the justness of the government that refuses his pardon. Hale's story of an outcast turned patriot, I argue, suggests that patriotism is not the natural expression of civic participation, but a sentiment conditioned by the imagination of political dispossession.