Beneath the American Renaissance The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville

• Main Author: Reynolds, David S
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press, Incorporated 2011; Oxford University Press
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: 19th century; American literature; History and criticism; Literature and society; Popular literature; Sensationalism in literature; Social norms in literature; Social problems in literature; Women in literature

Since its initial publication, David Reynolds's Beneath the American Renaissance has become a seminal resource for understanding American literature. It ranks alongside classics like F.O. Matthiessen's The American Renaissance, R.W.B. Lewis's The American Adam, and Eric Sundquist'...

Table of Contents:

• Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: THE OPEN TEXT: American Writers and Their Environment -- PART ONE: GOD'S BOW, MAN'S ARROWS: Religion, Reform, and American Literature -- 1. The New Religious Style -- 2. The Reform Impulse and the Paradox of Immoral Didacticism -- 3. The Transcendentalists, Whitman, and Popular Reform -- 4. Hawthorne and the Reform Impulse -- 5. Melville's Whited Sepulchres -- PART TWO: PUBLIC POISON: Sensationalism and Sexuality -- 6. The Sensational Press and the Rise of Subversive Literature -- 7. The Erotic Imagination -- 8. Poe and Popular Irrationalism -- 9. Hawthorne's Cultural Demons -- 10. Melville's Ruthless Democracy -- 11 . Whitman's Transfigured Sensationalism -- PART THREE: OTHER AMAZONS: Women's Rights, Women's Wrongs, and the Literary Imagination -- 12. Types of American Womanhood -- 13. Hawthorne's Heroines -- 14. The American Women's Renaissance and Emily Dickinson -- PART FOUR: THE GROTESQUE POSTURE: Popular Humor and the American Subversive Style -- 15. The Carnivalization of American Language -- 16. Transcendental Wild Oats -- 17. Whitman's Poetic Humor -- 18. Stylized Laughter in Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville -- Epilogue: RECONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM: Literary Theory and Literary History -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z