Oliver Wendell Holmes and the culture of conversation / Peter Gibian.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gibian, Peter, 1952- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 127.

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 127

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894--Criticism and interpretation.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell.

Literature and society--United States--History--19th century.

Literature and society.

Conversation--History--19th century.

Conversation.

Table-talk--History--19th century.

Table-talk.

Conversation in literature.

Dialogue in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 398 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Oliver Wendell Holmes & the Culture of Conversation

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Peter Gibian explores the key role played by Oliver Wendell Holmes in what was known as America's 'Age of Conversation'. He was both a model and an analyst of the dynamic conversational form, which became central to many areas of mid-nineteenth-century life. Holmes' multivoiced writings can serve as a key to open up the closed interiors of Victorian America, whether in saloons or salons, parlours or clubs, hotels or boarding-houses, schoolrooms or doctors' offices. Combining social, intellectual, medical, legal and literary history with close textual analysis, and setting Holmes in dialogue with Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, Fuller, Alcott and finally with his son, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior, Gibian radically redefines the context for our understanding of the major literary works of the American Renaissance.

Contents:

Opening the Conversation

The Conversation of a culture: strange powers of speech

Holmes in the conversation of his culture

"To change the order of conversation": interruption and vocal diversity in Holmes' American talk

"Collisions of Discourse" I: The Electrodynamics of Conversation: A carnival of verbal fireworks

"Collisions of Discourse" II: Electric and Ocaenic "Currents" In Conversation: The cultural work of Holmesian talk

A Conversational Approach To Truth: the Doctor in dialogue with contemporary truth-sayers

Conversation and "Therapeutic Nihilism": the Doctor in dialogue with contemporary medicine

The Self In Conversation: the Doctor in dialogue with contemporary psychology

The Two Poles 0f Conversation

The Bipolar Dynamices of Holmes' Household Dialogues: levity and gravity

Holmes' House Divided: house-keeping and house-breaking

"Cutting off the Communication": fixations and falls for the walled-in-self- Holmes in dialogue with Sterne, Dickens, and Melville

Breaking the House of Romance: Holmes in dialogue with Hawthorne

Closing the Conversation

Conclusion: Holmes Senior in dialogue with Holmes Junior.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-11305-9

1-280-15310-5

0-511-11636-5

0-511-05342-8

0-511-15352-X

0-511-30348-3

0-511-48550-6

0-511-01763-4

OCLC:

630527692