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dc.contributor.advisorGleason, Williamen_US
dc.contributor.advisorHartog, Hendriken_US
dc.contributor.authorKastner, Talen_US
dc.contributor.otherEnglish Departmenten_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-02-05T23:09:27Z-
dc.date.available2015-02-05T06:00:33Z-
dc.date.issued2013en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp0105741r753-
dc.description.abstractBorrowing the notion of standardized terms from the language of law, <italic> The Boilerplate of Everything and the Ideal of Agreement in American Law and Literature</italic> interrogates boilerplate &mdash; a presumptively obscure form &mdash; as a paradigm of expression. Using contract as a conceptual entry-point, I reveal the significance of the ideal of agreement in American literature and legal discourse from the nineteenth century to the current era. The first part of <italic>The Boilerplate of Everything</italic> focuses on legal texts read in light of literary theory. In Chapter One, I analyze common standardized terms in contracts and argue that this type of boilerplate points to a limiting principle, creating a source of interpretive authority within a document. The contract document thereby reflects and/or manifests an ideal of agreement involving the will and intention of the parties. Chapter Two examines the use of the term &ldquo;boilerplate&rdquo; in judicial opinions and legal writing, presenting boilerplate as an exemplar of contractual expression that instantiates the deconstructive notion of iterability. The special conceptual status of boilerplate indicates the persistence of the ideal of genuine agreement as a legitimating origin. I thereby reveal the ongoing role of agreement as a touchstone of contract and communication in American legal discourse. The second half of the project confronts American literature corresponding with the development of contract. In Chapter Three, I identify the nineteenth-century notion and practice of contract as a significant, and previously overlooked, element of Herman Melville's &ldquo;Bartleby, the Scrivener.&rdquo; I demonstrate how &ldquo;Bartleby&rdquo; anticipates the significance and limits of contract as an instrument of freedom in the American cultural consciousness during emancipation. Chapter Four reads Thomas Pynchon's <italic>The Crying of Lot 49</italic>, published contemporaneously with the first invocation of &ldquo; boilerplate &rdquo; by the Supreme Court in connection with contract. I argue that Pynchon's quintessentially postmodern work emphasizes the enduring seductiveness of the possibility of a &ldquo; meeting of minds, &rdquo; reinscribing it in a qualified and dynamic form. Demonstrating the expressive potential of boilerplate as well as its generative capacity to shape identity and agency, <italic>The Boilerplate of Everything</italic> illuminates the American imagination and the possibilities for individual expression, interpersonal connection and freedom.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherPrinceton, NJ : Princeton Universityen_US
dc.relation.isformatofThe Mudd Manuscript Library retains one bound copy of each dissertation. Search for these copies in the <a href=http://catalog.princeton.edu> library's main catalog </a>en_US
dc.subjectagreementen_US
dc.subjectAmerican literatureen_US
dc.subjectBartlebyen_US
dc.subjectboilerplateen_US
dc.subjectcontracten_US
dc.subjectThe Crying of Lot 49en_US
dc.subject.classificationAmerican literatureen_US
dc.subject.classificationLawen_US
dc.titleThe Boilerplate of Everything and the Ideal of Agreement in American Law and Literatureen_US
dc.typeAcademic dissertations (Ph.D.)en_US
pu.projectgrantnumber690-2143en_US
pu.embargo.terms2015-02-05en_US
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