Imagining language in America : from the Revolution to the Civil War / Michael P. Kramer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kramer, Michael P., 1952- author.

Series:

Princeton Legacy Library

Princeton legacy library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Study and teaching--United States--History--19th century.

English language.

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

American literature.

English language--United States--Historiography.

Language and languages in literature.

Linguistics--United States--History.

Linguistics.

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Americanisms.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (0 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1992]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In this study of the rhetoric of American writings on language, Michael Kramer argues that the prevalent critical distinction between imaginative and nonimaginative writing is of limited theoretical use. Breaking down the artificial, disciplinary barriers between two areas of scholarly inquiry--the literature of the American Renaissance and the study of language in the United States between the Revolution and the Civil War--Kramer finds in various walks of intellectual life a broad range of writers who "imagined language" for the new experiment in self-government. Each of these men combined ideas about language with ideas about America so as to form cultural fictions, or creative renderings of the nation--its meaning, its character, and how it worked. In order to reassess American linguistic and literary nationalism, Kramer allows Noah Webster, whose influential grammatical and lexicographic works have been considered only marginal to literary history, to share the stage with more conventionally literary figures--the neglected Longfellow and the canonical Whitman. Then an essay on The Federalist and the pragmatic language-related problems faced by the founding fathers introduces revisionary analyses of two New England writers who confronted American culture and society through their Romantic critiques of language: the minister and theologian Horace Bushnell and Nathaniel Hawthorne.Originally published in 1991.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

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works

Introduction: The Study of Language and the American Renaissance

PART ONE: TEACHING LANGUAGE IN AMERICA

Chapter One. "NOW is the Time, and This is the Country": How Noah Webster Invented American English

Chapter Two. "A Fine Ambiguity": Longfellow, Language, and Literary History

Chapter Three. "A Tongue According": Whitman and the Literature of Language Study

PART TWO: THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE IN AMERICA

Chapter Four. Consensus through Ambiguity: Why Language Matters to The Federalist

Chapter Five. Language in a "Christian Commonwealth": Horace Bushnell's Cultural Criticism

Chapter Six. Beyond Symbolism: Philosophy of Language in The Scarlet Letter

Conclusion: From Logocracy to Renaissance

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

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 bibliographical references (pages [203]-233) and index.

ISBN:

9781400862269

1400862264

OCLC:

1013940417