"Liberty "and" death? Citizenship "and" necrophilia? The conjunction 'and' is shocking and is meant to shock. Russ Castronovo sees American political life as the burial ground of many corpses, literal as well as metaphoric. With ruthless determination he digs these up, examines their tell-tale remains, and, in the process, offers a trenchant critique of some consequences of American democracy."--Wai Chee Dimock, author of "Residues of Justice: Literature, Law, Philosophy"

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: Democray’s Graveyard
1. Political Necrophilia
Freedom and the Longing for Dead Citizenship
2. “The Slavery of Man to Himself”
White Male Sexuality, Self-Reliance, and Bondage
3. “That Half-Living Corpse”
Female Mediums, Séances, and the Occult Public Sphere
4. The “Black Arts” of Citizenship
Africanist Origins of White Interiority
5. De-Naturalizing Citizenship
Afterword
Notes
Works Cited
Index