Beneath the American Renaissance : the subversive imagination in the age of Emerson and Melville

A Study Of Prominent 19th Century American Writers Shows How They Assimilated Themes And Images From Popular Culture Into Their Art, Particulary Sensationalistic Literature That Addressed Controversial Themes Such As Religion, Slavery, Sexual Mores, And Workers' And Women's Rights. Introduction : The Open Text: American Writers And Their Environment -- Pt. 1 : God's Bow, Man's Arrows: Religion, Reform, And American Literature : The New Religious Style -- The Reform Impulse And The Paradox Of Immoral Didacticism -- The Transcendentalists, Whitman, And Popular Reform -- Hawthorne And The Reform Impulse -- Melville's Whited Sepulchres. Pt. 2 : Public Poison: Sensationalism And Sexuality : The Sensational Press And The Rise Of Subversive Literature -- The Erotic Imagination -- Poe And Popular Irrationalism -- Hawthorne's Cultural Demons -- Melville's Ruthless Democracy -- Whitman's Transfigured Sensationalism. Pt. 3 : Other Amazons: Women's Rights, Women's Wrongs, And The Literary Imagination : Types Of American Womanhood -- Hawthorne's Heroines -- The American Women's Renaissance And Emily Dickinson. Pt. 4 : The Grotesque Posture: Popular Humor And The American Subversive Style : The Carnivalization Of American Language -- Transcendental Wild Oats -- Whitman's Poetic Humor -- Stylized Laughter In Poe, Hawthorne, And Melville -- Epilogue : Reconstructive Criticism: Literary Theory And Literary History. David S. Reynolds. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 569-604. In this landmark work, the seven great writers of the American Renaissance--Emerson, Thoreau, Writman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson -- are examined together in their cultural contexts. David Reynolds reveals how these authors broadly assimilated the themes and images of popular culture. Their classic works -- among them Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Leaves of Grass, Walden, and the tales of Poe -- are given strikingly original reading when viewed against the rich, often startling background of long neglected popular writings of the time. Reynolds also explores a whole lost world of sensational literature, including grisly novels, openly sold on the street, that combined intense violence with explicit eroticism. He demonstrates as well how common concerns with issues of religion, slavery, and workers' (as well as women's) rights resonate in the major writings. - Publisher.