Aesthetic individualism and practical intellect : American allegory in Emerson, Thoreau, Adams, and James / Olaf Hansen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hansen, Olaf, 1943- author.

Series:

Princeton Legacy Library

Princeton legacy library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

Allegory.

Individualism in literature.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo.

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862--Technique.

Thoreau, Henry David.

Adams, Henry, 1838-1918--Technique.

Adams, Henry.

James, William, 1842-1910.

James, William.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (0 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1990]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Addressing vital issues in the current revision of American literary studies, Olaf Hansen carries out an exposition of American writing as a philosophical tradition. His broad and comparative view of American culture reveals the importance of the American allegory as a genuine artistic and intellectual style and as a distinct mode of thought particularly suited to express the philosophical legacy of transcendentalism. Hansen traces intellectual and cultural continuities and disruptions from Emerson through Thoreau and Henry Adams to William James, paying special attention to the modernism of transcendental thought and to its quality as a valid philosophy in its own right. Concerned with defining ideas of self, selfhood, and subjectivity and with moral tradition as an act of creating order out of the cosmos, the American allegory provided a basic and frequently overlooked link between transcendentalism and pragmatism. Its "suggestive incompleteness" combined in a highly dialectic manner the essence of both enlightenment and romanticism. Characterized neither by absolute objectivity nor by absolute subjectivity, it allowed speculation about the meaning of reality and about humankind's place in a realm of appearances.Originally published in 1990.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. Allegory and the Work of Tradition

CHAPTER 2. Merlin's Laughter

CHAPTER 3. Ralph Waldo Emerson

CHAPTER 4. Henry David Thoreau

CHAPTER 5. Henry Adams

CHAPTER 6. William James

CHAPTER 7. American Allegory

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 237-246.

ISBN:

9781400860746

1400860741

OCLC:

889253318