American Terror : The Feeling of Thinking in Edwards, Poe, and Melville

If America is a nation founded upon Enlightenment ideals, then why are so many of its most celebrated pieces of literature so dark? 'American Terror' returns to the question of American literature's distinctive tone of terror through a close study of three authors - Jonathan Edwards, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville - who not only wrote works of terror, but who defended, theorised, and championed it. If America Is A Nation Founded Upon Enlightenment Ideals, Then Why Are So Many Of Its Most Celebrated Pieces Of Literature So Dark? American Terror Returns To The Question Of American Literature's Distinctive Tone Of Terror Through A Close Study Of Three Authors--jonathan Edwards, Edgar Allan Poe, And Herman Melville--who Not Only Wrote Works Of Terror, But Who Defended, Theorized, And Championed It. Combining Updated Historical Perspectives With Close Reading, Paul Hurh Shows How These Authors Developed Terror As A Special Literary Affect Informed By The Way The Concept Of Thinking Becomes, In The Wake Of Enlightenment Empiricism, Increasingly Defined By A Set Of Austere Mechanic Processes, Such As The Scientific Method And The Algebraic Functions Of Analytical Logic. Rather Than Trying To Find A Feeling That Would Transcend Thinking By Subtending Reason To Emotion, These Writers Found In Terror The Feeling Of Thinking, The Peculiar Feeling Of Reason's Authority Over Emotional Schemes. In So Doing, They Grappled With A Shared Set Of Enduring Questions: What Is The Difference Between Thinking And Feeling? When We Know Something, How Do We Know That We Know It? Why Does It Seem Impossible To Reason Oneself Out Of An Irrational Fear? And What Becomes Of The Freedom Of The Will When We Discover That Affects Can Push It Around? -- Publisher's Description Introduction : Reopening Darkness -- Awakening Terror : Hellfire Preaching, Jonathan Edwards, And The Logic Of Revivalist Affect -- Critical Terrors : Poe's Aesthetic Terror And The Claims Of Art After Jena -- The Air Of Analysis : Resolution And Composition In Poe's Sublime And Confessional Tales -- The Uneven Balance : Dialectical Terror In Moby-dick -- Dread : Space, Time, And Automata In The Piazza Tales -- Afterword : Some Dim, Random Way. Paul Hurh. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contrary to accounts that interpret terror in opposition to reason, this book shows how three authors famous for their works and theories of terror--Jonathan Edwards, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville--developed a terror that incorporates, theorizes, and extends the Enlightenment claims of reason as feeling