A World Elsewhere: The Place of Style in American Literature

Spiller, Robert E.; Poirier, Richard

doi:10.2307/2923860

Cited by 36 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…22 Although I disagree with recent Emerson scholarship that maintains that his criticism and activism were continuous, neither do I agree with the work that this recent scholarship argues against. Earlier Emerson scholars contended that there was a tension between abolitionism and Emerson's social criticism on two grounds-first, that foundational Emersonian concepts, such as self-reliance and authenticity, were incompatible with collective action (Kateb [1995(Kateb [ ] 2002Poirier 1985), and second, that Emerson's work starkly contrasted with that of radical reformers of his time (Anderson 1971;Bercovitch 1993). In my view, recent Emerson scholarship has posed significant challenges to both of these views.…”

Section: Rethinking the Relationship Between Critics And Activistsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In advancing this position, I depart from the prevailing interpretation of Emerson's political trajectory. Scholarship of the past two decades has generally rejected the view-put forward in the 1980s and 1990s (Kateb [1995(Kateb [ ] 2002Poirier 1985;West 1989)that there is a tension between Emerson's social criticism and abolitionism. Beginning in the late 1990s, scholars began to uncover a wider scope of Emerson's political engagement than had previously been identified (Gougeon 2001;2010;Robinson 2004;von Frank 1998).…”

Section: The Limitations Of a Social Critic's Position: Abolitionism ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6 Many Emerson scholars have analyzed his practice of redefinition, showing how Emerson uses the linguistic construction of his texts to challenge traditional meanings of words and concepts. However, these scholars have generally concluded that this practice is selforiented, revealing the incommunicability of Emerson's "world within" (Poirier 1985) and making his prose primarily "in conversation with itself" (Cavell 1979, 176). By contrast, I see Emerson's redefinitions as socially oriented attempts to reconfigure the relationship between himself and his audiences.…”

Section: Emerson and The Advantages Of A Social Critic's Positionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Activism versus Criticism? The Case for a Distinctive Role for Social Critics

Gilson

2023

Am Polit Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This essay makes a distinction between the roles that activists and social critics can play in democratic societies and defends the separate tasks of a non-activist social critic. Drawing on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings, I argue that non-activist social critics are better situated than activists to reach certain audiences, cultivate certain democratic capacities, and preserve their audience’s agency while doing so. In Emerson’s case, his concerns about his activist contemporaries led him to craft new ways of critically engaging his peers. At the same time, as Emerson’s life also illustrates, non-activist critics are limited by their roles and must forgo some of their distinctive advantages in order to do activist work. Clarifying the scope of the social critic’s role in this way helps critics to draw on the benefits of their position and avoid overstepping its constraints, thereby allowing them to more effectively promote political reform.

show abstract

Section: Rethinking the Relationship Between Critics And Activistsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: The Limitations Of a Social Critic's Position: Abolitionism ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emerson and The Advantages Of A Social Critic's Positionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Activism versus Criticism? The Case for a Distinctive Role for Social Critics

Gilson

2023

Am Polit Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Formalism, Experience, and the Making of American Literature in the Nineteenth Century

Davis

2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Theo Davis offers a fresh account of the emergence of a national literature in the United States. Taking American literature's universalism as an organising force that must be explained rather than simply exposed, she contends that Emerson, Hawthorne, and Stowe's often noted investigations of experience are actually based in a belief that experience is an abstract category governed by typicality, not the property of the individual subject. Additionally, these authors locate the form of the literary work in the domain of abstract experience, projected out of - not embodied in - the text. After tracing the emergence of these beliefs out of Scottish common sense philosophy and through early American literary criticism, Davis analyses how American authors' prose seeks to work an art of abstract experience. In so doing, she reconsiders the place of form in modern literary studies.

show abstract

The Cambridge Introduction to The Nineteenth-Century American Novel

Crane

2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stowe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Twain: these are just a few of the world-class novelists of nineteenth-century America. The nineteenth-century American novel was a highly fluid form, constantly evolving in response to the turbulent events of the period and emerging as a key component in American identity, growth, expansion and the Civil War. Gregg Crane tells the story of the American novel from its beginnings in the early republic to the end of the nineteenth century. Treating the famous and many less well-known works, Crane discusses the genre's major figures, themes and developments. He analyses the different types of American fiction - romance, sentimental fiction, and the realist novel - in detail, while the historical context is explained in relation to how novelists explored the changing world around them. This comprehensive and stimulating introduction will enhance students' experience of reading and studying the whole canon of American fiction.

show abstract

A World Elsewhere: The Place of Style in American Literature

Cited by 36 publications

References 0 publications

Activism versus Criticism? The Case for a Distinctive Role for Social Critics

Activism versus Criticism? The Case for a Distinctive Role for Social Critics

Formalism, Experience, and the Making of American Literature in the Nineteenth Century

The Cambridge Introduction to The Nineteenth-Century American Novel

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About