Author : Larry J. Reynolds,Professor of English and Thomas Franklin Mayon Professor of Liberal Arts Larry J Reynolds,W. Michael Reynolds
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 1988-01-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0300042426
European Revolutions and the American Literary Renaissance by Larry J. Reynolds,Professor of English and Thomas Franklin Mayon Professor of Liberal Arts Larry J Reynolds,W. Michael Reynolds Pdf
Political issues and events have always acted as a catalyst on thought and art. In this pioneering study, Larry J. Reynolds argues that the European revolutions of 1848-49 quickened the American literary imagination and shaped the characters, plots, and themes of the American renaissance. He traces the impact of the revolutions on Emerson, Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, and Thoreau, showing that the upheavals abroad both inspired and disturbed. Extraordinarily well informed and creative treatment of the influences of the 1848-49 European revolutions on writers of the American Renaissance...The book is especially effective in providing a historical context for reading major writings. It demonstrates influences at work at a number of levels and presents historical narrative and subtle readings of literary texts with equal clarity. Highly recommended.- Choice