Beneath the American Renaissance

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, the volume includes a new foreword by historian Sean Wilentz that reveals the book's impact and influence. A magisterial work of criticism and cultural history, Beneath the American Renaissance will fascinate anyone interested in the genesis of America's most significant literary epoch and the iconic figures who defined it.

Autorentext

David S. Reynolds is Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His books include Walt Whitman's America, Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, John Brown, Abolitionist, and Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Battle for America.

Zusammenfassung
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, the volume includes a new foreword by historian Sean Wilentz that reveals the book's impact and influence. A magisterial work of criticism and cultural history, Beneath the American Renaissance will fascinate anyone interested in the genesis of America's most significant literary epoch and the iconic figures who defined it.

Inhalt

Introduction Part I God's Bow, Man's Arrows: Religion, Reform, and American Literature Chapter One: The New Religious Style Chapter Two: The Reform Impulse and the Paradox of Immoral Didacticism Chapter Three: The Transcendentalists, Whitman, and Popular Reform Chapter Four: Hawthorne and the Reform Impulse Chapter Five: Melville's Whited Sepulchres Part II: Public Poison: Sensationalism and Sexuality Chapter 6 The Sensational Press and the Rise of Subversive Literature Chapter 7 The Erotic Imagination Chapter 8 Poe and Popular Irrationalism Chapter 9 Hawthorne's Cultural Demons Chapter 10 Melville's Ruthless Democracy Chapter 11 Whitman's Transfigured Sensationalism Part III: Other Amazons: Women's Rights, Women's Wrongs, and the Literary Imagination Chapter 12: Types of American Womanhood Chapter 13: Hawthorne's Heroines Chapter 14 The American Women's Renaissance and Emily Dickinson Part IV The Grotesque Posture Popular Humor and the American Subversive Style Chapter 15 The Carnivalization of American Language Chapter 16 Transcendental Wild Oats Chapter 17 Whitman's Poetic Humor Chapter 18 Stylized Laugher in Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville Epilogue Reconstructive Criticism: Literary Theory and Literary History Notes Index