Republic of Taste
Subtitle: Art, Politics, and Everyday Life in Early America
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: Aug 05, 2016
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 312
ISBN-13: 9780812248234
Description: "Exploring the intersection of the early republic's material, visual, literary, and political cultures, Catherine E. Kelly demonstrates how American thinkers acknowledged the similarities between aesthetics and politics in order to wrestle with questions about power and authority. Judgments about art, architecture, literature, poetry, and the theater became an arena for considering political issues ranging from government structures and legislative representation to qualifications for citizenship and the meaning of liberty itself. Additionally, if taste prompted political debate, it also encouraged affinity grounded in a shared national identity. In the years following independence, ordinary women and men reassured themselves that taste revealed larger truths about an individuals' character and potential for republican citizenship."--book jacket
Notes: Source title: Republic of Taste: Art, Politics, and Everyday Life in Early America (Early American Studies)