The Images Of Britain In The Delegates' Cognition

The United States of America is of great importance in the world nowadays,in whose culture the Constitution plays a very important role.As the metropolitan state,Britain had a great influence on the Constitution of U.S..James Madison's The Journals of The Constitutional Convention is indispensable for constitutional studying.Focusing on this book,this dissertation analyzes the images of Britain in the delegates'cognition by studying their discourse systems in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia.Generally,there were three kinds of images of Britain in the delegates' cognition:the metropolitan state that was considered as historical background;the reference system that was considered as a mirror for designing government system;the imaginary enemy that was considered as potential threat.It was the era background,the relationship between Britain and America,and the situation of America that produced these images.And they reflected the contradictions between experience and reason,identities before and after independence,historical experience and national identification.Besides the preface and the epilogue,this dissertation is composed of three parts.Chapter 1 is the first part,and it briefly describes the Constitutional Convention and its important subjects to offer a context for the subsequent discussions.The subjects are the characteristics of the total government,the distribution of seats of the Congress,and how to elect a president.The second part is the principal part,which describes in detail the three kinds of images of Britain in the delegates' cognition,consisting of Chapter 2,Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.Chapter 5 is the last part,which analyzes the reasons of these images of Britain in the delegates'cognition.