1st Edition
Romanticism Critical Essays in American Literature
First published in 1986. This outstanding collection of major essays by some of America’s finest literary scholars and critics provides students of American literature with a unique perspective of America’s Romantic literature. Some of these essays make connections between authors or define Romanticism in terms of one of the works; others address major issues during the period; others offer a framework for specific works; and, finally, some give interpretations for the reader. All of the essays offer distinctive voices that will engage students in this rich and memorable period of American literature.
Foreword; Part 1: Introduction; 1. A National Literature and Romantic Individualism (1826-1861); Part 2: Emerson, Essays; 2. I, Eye, Ay – Emerson’s Early Essay on "Nature": Thoughts on the Machinery of Transcendence 3. Emerson: The Unconquered Eye and the Enchanted Circle 4. The Problem of Emerson; Part 3: Thoreau, Walden; 5. The Successive Versions of Walden 6. Scatology and Eschatology: The Heroic Dimensions of Thoreau’s Wordplay 7. Portions; Part 4: Poe, Short Stories; 8. The House of Poe 9. Poe’s "Ligeia": I Have Been Faithful to You in My Fashion 10. The Psychology of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"; Part 5: The Scarlett Letter; 11. Form and Content in The Scarlet Letter 12. The Scarlet Letter: Through the Old Manse and the Custom House 13. The Ruined Wall; Part 6: Melville, Moby-Dick; 14. The Universal Thump: Jehovah’s Winter World 15. The Nature and Forms of Despair 16. Infants, Boys, and Men, and Ifs Eternally – Moby-Dick; Part 7: Whitman, Leaves of Grass; 17. Singing for Soul and Body 18. Walt Whitman and the American Tradition 19. An Analysis of "Song of Myself" 20. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
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Multivolume collection by leading authors in the field
