Déférence, abnégation et souci de soi : l’engagement dans le roman américain post-révolutionnaire

Abstract

The idea of commitment is central to the American novels of the post-Revolutionary era, as it functions as a model for individual and collective behavior that carries strong moral, social, as well as political resonances. While the capacity to fully devote oneself to another, particularly to a supreme being or institution such as one’s nation, is praised in these texts, one can simultaneously note the existence of a complementary counter-discourse which glorifies commitment to the self. These two representations are perpetually unsettled by the recurrent idea, developed in 1790s novels especially, that any type of commitment is impracticable.