Correspondence and American literature, 1770-1865 / by Elizabeth Hewitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hewitt, Elizabeth, 1965- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 146.

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 146

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

Letter writing in literature.

Letter writing--United States--History--19th century.

Letter writing.

Letter writing--United States--History--18th century.

American literature--1783-1850--History and criticism.

Epistolary fiction, American--History and criticism.

Epistolary fiction, American.

Epistolary poetry, American--History and criticism.

Epistolary poetry, American.

American letters--History and criticism.

American letters.

Letters in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 230 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Correspondence & American Literature, 1770-1865

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Elizabeth Hewitt uncovers the centrality of letter-writing to antebellum American literature. She argues that many canonical American authors turned to the epistolary form as an idealised genre through which to consider the challenges of American democracy before the Civil War. The letter was the vital technology of social intercourse in the nineteenth century and was adopted as an exemplary genre in which authors from Crevecoeur and Adams through Jefferson, to Emerson, Melville, Dickinson and Whitman, could theorise the social and political themes that were so crucial to their respective literary projects. They interrogated the political possibilities of social intercourse through the practice and analysis of correspondence. Hewitt argues that although correspondence is generally only conceived as a biographical archive, it must instead be understood as a significant genre through which these early authors made sense of social and political relations in the nation.

Contents:

Introduction : universal letter-writers

1. National letters

2. Emerson and Fuller's phenomenal letters

3. Melville's dead letters

4. Jacob's letters from nowhere

5. Dickinson's lyrical letters

Conclusion : Whitman's universal letters.

Notes:

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

Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-225) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-16349-8

1-280-74972-5

0-511-26496-8

0-511-26568-9

0-511-26339-2

0-511-31739-5

0-511-48554-9

0-511-26420-8

OCLC:

252533009