The American Renaissance has been a foundational concept in American literary history for nearly a century. The phrase connotes a period, as well as an event, an iconic turning point in the growth of a national literature and a canon of texts that would shape American fiction, poetry, and oratory for generations. F. O. Matthiessen coined the term in 1941 to describe the years 1850–1855, which saw the publications of major writings by Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman. This Companion takes up the concept of the American Renaissance and explores its origins, meaning, and longevity. Essays by distinguished scholars move chronologically from the formative reading of American Renaissance authors to the careers of major figures ignored by Matthiessen, including Stowe, Douglass, Harper, and Longfellow. The volume uses the best of current literary studies, from digital humanities to psychoanalytic theory, to illuminate an era that reaches far beyond the Civil War and continues to shape our understanding of American literature.
Edited by:
Christopher N. Phillips
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 228mm,
Width: 153mm,
Spine: 14mm
Weight: 410g
ISBN: 9781108431088
ISBN 10: 1108431089
Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature
Publication Date: 15 March 2018
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Christopher N. Phillips; Into the Renaissance: 1. Reading the American Renaissance in a Pennsylvania library Christopher N. Phillips; 2. Cooper, Simms, and the boys of summer Jeffrey Walker; 3. The trouble with the Gothic: Poe, Lippard, and the poetics of critique Russell Sbriglia; 4. Emerson and Hawthorne; or, locating the American Renaissance Gavin Jones and Judith Richardson; 5. Cosmopolite at home: global Longfellow Christoph Irmscher; Rethinking the Renaissance: 6. Sins of the rising generation: religion and the American Renaissance Zachary McLeod Hutchins; 7. Uncle Tom's Cabin and the struggle over meaning: from slavery to race Barbara Hochman; 8. The (im)possibilities of Indianness: George Copway and the problem of representativity Mark Rifkin; 9. The poetess at work Alexandra Socarides; 10. Fern, Warner, and the work of sentimentality Jennifer Brady; 11. Melville: the ocean and the city Wyn Kelley; Beyond the Renaissance: 12. Whitman, in and out of the Renaissance David Haven Blake; 13. A Renaissance-self: Frederick Douglass and the art of remaking Zoe Trodd; 14. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 'in the situation of Ishmael' Melba J. Boyd; 15. The corner-stones of Heaven: science comes to concord Laura Dassow Walls; Coda: War and the Renaissance Christopher N. Phillips.
Reviews for The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Renaissance
'The essays are consistently engaging and … address a general as well as a scholarly audience. The most successful contributions not only introduce an author (or authors) but also stake a claim. Most readers will find that the collection expands one's reading list by reminding one of the importance of authors such as William Gilmore Simms, George Lippard, and Alice Cary, whose works afford opportunities to reassess the idea of an American Renaissance.' G. D. MacDonald, Choice '… excellent … The contributors are expert authorities on their subjects, and their footnotes indicate a robust engagement with both classic and recent works of American literary scholarship.' John Hay, The New England Quarterly
