Following a trajectory that begins with Goethe and extends through Emerson, Whitman, and Mann, this study reconstructs a neglected facet of modernity: the effort to create a collective poetics. The work examines both aspects of literary form and ways of thinking about society and politics. The collective poetics of E pluribus unum represents the literary manifestation of the guiding principle of the US and of liberal democracy in general.

Kai Sina, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.