Beneath the American Renaissance : the subversive imagination in the age of Emerson and Melville / David S. Reynolds.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reynolds, David S., 1948- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882--Contemporaries.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo.

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891--Contemporaries.

Melville, Herman.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

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

Literature and society.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 625 p., [16] p. of plates ) ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, [England] : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Summary:

The aware-winning Beneath the American Renaissance is a classic work on American literature. Here the major works of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson receive striking, original readings set against the rich backdrop of contemporary popular writing.

Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "impressively informed and heroic" and in The Economist as "richly suggestive," the award-winning Beneath the American Renaissance is a classic work on American literature. It immeasurably broadens our knowledge of our most important literary period, as first identified by F.O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance. With its combination of sharp critical insight, engaging observation, and narrative drive, it represents the kind of masterful cultural history for which David Reynolds is known. Here the major works of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson receive striking, original readings set against the rich backdrop of contemporary popular writing. Now back in print in an affordable paperback edition, the volume includes a new foreword by prominent historian Sean Wilentz that reveals the book's impact and influence. An exquisite jewel of criticism and cultural history, Beneath the American Renaissance is certain to find an appreciative new readership in those interested in the genesis of America's most significant literary epoch and the iconic figures who defined it.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction: THE OPEN TEXT: American Writers and Their Environment

PART ONE: GOD'S BOW, MAN'S ARROWS: Religion, Reform, and American Literature

1. The New Religious Style

2. The Reform Impulse and the Paradox of Immoral Didacticism

3. The Transcendentalists, Whitman, and Popular Reform

4. Hawthorne and the Reform Impulse

5. Melville's Whited Sepulchres

PART TWO: PUBLIC POISON: Sensationalism and Sexuality

6. The Sensational Press and the Rise of Subversive Literature

7. The Erotic Imagination

8. Poe and Popular Irrationalism

9. Hawthorne's Cultural Demons

10. Melville's Ruthless Democracy

11 . Whitman's Transfigured Sensationalism

PART THREE: OTHER AMAZONS: Women's Rights, Women's Wrongs, and the Literary Imagination

12. Types of American Womanhood

13. Hawthorne's Heroines

14. The American Women's Renaissance and Emily Dickinson

PART FOUR: THE GROTESQUE POSTURE: Popular Humor and the American Subversive Style

15. The Carnivalization of American Language

16. Transcendental Wild Oats

17. Whitman's Poetic Humor

18. Stylized Laughter in Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville

Epilogue: RECONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM: Literary Theory and Literary History

Notes

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-997639-2

OCLC:

958580379