Democracy's Spectacle: Sovereignty and Public Life in Antebellum American Writing

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This book has been inspired and sustained by family, friends, and colleagues to whom I owe so much more than thanks. The University at Albany, State University of New York, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the United University Professions provided research support for travel to libraries and archives during the summers of 2006 and 2007. I was able to complete the majority of work on the manuscript during a spring 2007 leave funded by the Nuala McGann Drescher Affirmative Action/Diversity Leave Program, and a fall 2007 writing leave granted by the University at Albany Department of English . In the earliest stages of this project, my research was supported by a dissertation grant from the Mellon Foundation and by the Chancellor’s Dissertation Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. Begun as a dissertation in Berkeley’s Department of Comparative Literature , this project has not shaken its comparatist roots, and for that I thank Nancy Ruttenburg. An enthusiastic, patient, generous, and rigorous dissertation director, Nancy models a range of expertise and a genius for close reading to which I will always aspire. I can trace the origins of this project to a seminar taught by Sam Otter more than a decade ago, and in the intervening years he has continued to guide my readings in and of American literature. It has been my great good fortune that Nancy and Sam regard their commitment to their students as a long-term one, and I thank both of them for their ongoing mentorship. This project also benefitted in its dissertation stage from the support and guidance x / acknowledgments of Judith Butler, whose insights and encouragement helped to shape its current form. I am deeply grateful for the example of three such inspired teachers. The University at Albany English department has provided me a stimulating intellectual home, and I owe thanks to all of my colleagues in this dynamic department. Two chairs—Steve North and Mike Hill— have been unwavering in their support and, along with Liz Lauenstein and Regina Klym, have helped me to secure funding and leave. Branka Arsić, Rick Barney, Bret Benjamin, Eric Keenaghan, Marjorie Pryse, Helene Scheck, and Charlie Shepherdson have all generously read and engaged with my work and provided invaluable guidance and insight. I also remain indebted to the talented group of graduate students in my fall 2004 seminar on “Antebellum Spectacle,” whose discussions helped to shape this project at a crucial phase. I have been very fortunate to work with Helen Tartar and Fordham University Press, and to enjoy the support of the American Literatures Initiative. In addition to Helen, whose enthusiasm for the project spurred me to finish, I’d like to thank Tim Roberts, Ruth Steinberg, and Thomas Lay for their efficiency, skill, and professionalism. The book also owes an immeasurable debt to the recommendations and insights of the two readers Helen secured. I am particularly grateful to Jonathan Elmer, who offered as comprehensive and discerning a reading of this book as I could hope to have. An early version of Chapter 2 was published in the Arizona Quarterly 60.1 (2004) as “Racial Violence and the Theatrics of Opinion in Beaumont’s Marie.” I feel incredibly lucky to have found in my colleagues at both the University of California, Berkeley, and at the University at Albany, the most supportive of communities and the dearest of friends. To those once together at Berkeley, and now scattered all about, I send my warmest thanks for many years of friendship: Amir Banbaji, Ayelet Ben-Yishai, Promita Chatterji, Gil Hochberg, James Ker, Jo Park, Allison Schachter, and Laura Schattschneider. At Berkeley, I also had the pleasure of serving as an editor of qui parle with brilliant colleagues and friends—in particular, Arianne Chernock, Lilya Kaganovsky, Ben Lazier, John Ronan , and Catherine Zimmer. In Albany, an already welcoming community has continued to grow, and for sustaining me with food, drink, and friendship, I thank: Elisa Albert and Ed Schwarzschild, Branka Arsić and David Wills, Rick Barney, Joel Berkowitz and Esther Nathanson, Bret Benjamin and Laura Wilder , Leona Christie, Pat Chu and Andrew Hoberek, James and Sharon acknowledgments / xi Danoff-Burg, Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte, Cricket Keating and Larin McLaughlin, Eric Keenaghan and Jeffrey Lependorf, James Lilley and Lauren Sallata, Ineke Murakami, Angela Pneuman, Helene Scheck, Paul Stasi, and Lisa Thompson. To my expansive and widespread family, I owe pretty much everything . Kim...