Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and MelvilleThe 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. |
Contents
3 | |
13 | |
PUBLIC POISON Sensationalism and Sexuality | 167 |
OTHER AMAZONS Womens Rights Womens Wrongs and the Literary Imagination | 335 |
THE GROTESQUE POSTURE Popular Humor and the American Subversive Style | 439 |
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adventure ambiguities American antebellum appeared artistic authors became becomes Brooklyn Daily Eagle called character City common Confidence-Man contemporary Conventional created crime criminal criticism dark democratic described devices Dickinson early effect Emerson exemplar fact female feminist fiction figure forces frontier George gives hand Hawthorne Hawthorne's heroine human humor humorists imagery images imagination John kind later Leaves Letter Lippard literary literature living major meaning Melville Melville's Moby-Dick mode moral murder narrative nature newspapers noted novel pamphlet paradoxes paragraph period poem poetry political popular culture Press produced Puritan Quaker radical readers reform religious represented rhetoric says scene seems sensational sermon sexual shows social society spirit stereotypes story style stylistic subsequent quotations Subversive suggests symbol tale temperance texts themes tion types typical University urban vision Whitman wild woman women writings wrote York young