A01=Sarah Ann Wider
Author_Sarah Ann Wider
Capitalism
Category=DSBF
Category=DSK
Critics
Democracy
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Individualism
Literature
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-reliance
Thought-provoking
Product details
- ISBN 9781571131669
- Weight: 528g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 05 Dec 2000
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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A history of the most important scholarly criticism of Emerson from his time down to the present.
Since the 1820s, Ralph Waldo Emerson has provoked an unsettled response from his readers and contentiousness among critics. Critics still contest Emerson's position: Was he poet or philosopher? Did he liberate American literatureor narrow it to a one-dimensional idea? Is his signature concept of self-reliance the most profound contribution to democratic individualism or the epitome of capitalism's impoverished thought? But by the mid 20th century the swing between condemnation and celebration of Emerson had given way to the familiar story of his bisected career, which provided a neat structure for viewing his life and work, and shaped our thought about him. Now that story is beingchallenged by the application of poststructuralism and textual editing, and with the publication of an amazing repertoire of editions, the Emerson canon is changing. The result is that Emerson criticism now faces a far more complex group of writings than before. One hundred and fifty years after Emerson styled himself an 'experimenter' who would 'unsettle all things,' this new critical history illustrates the continuing, thought-provoking success of thatexperiment.
Sarah Ann Wider is Professor of English at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
