The Pursuit of Happiness and the American Regime
Political Theory in Literature
By (author) Elizabeth Amato
Publication date:
28 February 2018Length of book:
198 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498554190
The Declaration of Independence claims that individuals need liberty to pursue happiness, but provides little guidance on the “what” of happiness. Happiness studies and liberal theory are incomplete guides. Happiness studies offer insights into what makes people happy but happiness policy risks becoming doctrinaire. Liberal theory is better on personal liberty, but weak on the “what” of happiness. My argument is that American novelists are surer guides on the pursuit of happiness. Treated as political thinkers, my book offers a close reading of four American novelists, Tom Wolfe, Walker Percy, Edith Wharton, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and their critique of the pursuit of happiness. With a critical and friendly eye, they present the shortcomings of pursuing happiness in a liberal nation but also present alternatives and correctives possible in America. Our novelists point us toward each other in friendship as our greatest resource to guide us towards happiness.
In our pursuit of happiness, Americans often look first to secure our comfort, prosperity, and self-esteem. Elizabeth Amato uses some of the best writers that American literature has to offer to upend this notion. Through a keen reading of such novelists as Walker Percy, Tom Wolfe, and Edith Wharton, she reveals the truth that life’s challenges confound the pursuit of material happiness, and through them, offers a reminder that a more lasting and moderate happiness flows from ordered liberty and a concern for the truth and beauty of ordinary life.