Pain and the aesthetics of US literary realism / Cynthia J. Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Cynthia J., 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

Pain in literature.

Realism in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (243 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Summary:

Demonstrates the importance of physical pain to late-nineteenth century aesthetic sensibilities and, in particular, to American literary realism with a focus on the work of William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, and Charles Chesnutt.

Contents:

Cover

Pain and the Aesthetics of US Literary Realism

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction: Pain and Postbellum American Sensibilities

PART ONE: HIGH REALISM

1: "The Taste of Life": Suffering, Literary Mode, and Howellsian Realism

2: "No Pain and No Consciousness": The James Siblings, Anesthesia, and Suffering

3: "The Blind Dread of Physical Pain": Edith Wharton against the New Thought

PART TWO: "CURIOUS REALISM"

4: Stubborn Fractions: Mark Twain, Christian Science, and Pain

5: To "Suffer Severely from Injustice": Charles Chesnutt's Realist Vision

Epilogue: "True Realism" and a "Truer World"

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780191890857

0191890855

9780192602367

0192602365

OCLC:

1283852742