Cavitch: Remembering George Washington

[jbor at bigpond.com]

'The Man That Was Used Up: Poetry, Particularity, and the Politics of 
Remembering George Washington' by Max Cavitch
_American Literature_ 75.2, June 2003, pp. 247-274.
	
Abstract: Focuses on the contribution of US President George Washington 
to American literature. Symbolism on national cultural process of 
postrepublican transformation; disembodiment of political power in 
modern nationalism; conceptualisation of political tradition interposes 
itself between citizen-subject and their self-actualizing polities.

Excerpts:
"[...] As contributors to this ongoing work of remembrance, writers of 
fiction, like so many historians, biographers, and exhibit curators, 
have sought to portray a Washington more personally compelling than the 
abstract or monumental figure he commonly strikes; a Washington not yet 
purged of singularity; a Washington of depth, interiority, even 
edginess. For example, at one point in Thomas Pynchon's novel, _Mason & 
Dixon_ ... " (p. 248)

Pdf available.

best