Nothing Abstract: Investigations in the American Literary Imagination (Volume 1)

Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, __Nothing Abstract__ is a collection of essays gathered over the past twenty years--all of which, in some fashion, have to do with a genetic approach to literary study. In previous books, the author has traced the compositional histories of certain literary works, the course of individual careers, and the genesis of literary movements. In this book, Tom Quirk resists the direction taken by contemporary theory in favor of an approach to literature through source and influence study, the evolution of a writer's achievement, the establishment of biographical or other contexts, and the transition from one literary era to another. All of the essays that Quirk has chosen for this collection illustrate a scholarly method. The first two essays, somewhat general in their concerns, constitute a defense for the genetic method, and subsequent essays serve as evidence for the usefulness of genetic inquiry. The entire volume challenges poststructuralist theory not through active confrontation, but merely by being what it is and doing what it does. More important though is that all of the chosen essays are intrinsically interesting. They tell fascinating stories—stories about literary genesis, biographical circumstances, and artistic ambitions and achievement. Authors discussed at length are Edgar Allan Poe, Tony Hillerman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Wallace Stevens, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Joyce Carol Oates. Quirk also touches on Flannery O'Connor, Richard Wright, Robert Frost, Jack London, Stephen Crane, William Faulkner, and others. __Nothing Abstract__ makes a great contribution to the study of important American writers and will be welcomed by all students and scholars of American studies and American literature. Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, Nothing Abstract is a collection of essays gathered over the past twenty years -- all of which, in some fashion, have to do with a genetic approach to literary study. In previous books, the author has traced and discussed the com-positional histories of certain literary works. In this book, Tom Quirk takes a stand against the direction taken by modern critical theory and sets forth his approach to literature through source and influence study, the evolution of a certain writer's career, the establishment of biographical or other contexts, and the transition from one literary era to another.All of the essays that Quirk has chosen for this collection illustrate a scholarly method. The first two essays, somewhat general in their concerns, constitute a defense for the genetic method, and subsequent essays serve as evidence for the usefulness of genetic inquiry. The entire volume resists poststructuralist and later theory not through active confrontation, but merely by being what it is and doing what it does. More important though is that all of the chosen essays are intrinsically interesting. They tell fascinating stories -- stories about literary genesis, biographical circumstances, and artistic ambitions and achievement.Authors discussed at length are Edgar Allan Poe, Tony Hillerman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Wallace Stevens, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Joyce Carol Oates. Quirk also touches on Flannery O'Connor, Richard Wright, Robert Frost, Jack London, Stephen Crane, William Faulkner, and others. Nothing Abstract makes a great contribution to the study of important Americanwriters and will be welcomed by all students and scholars of American studies and American literature. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 I. Introduction 14 The Proof 24 II. Sources, Influences, and Intertexts 26 III. Authors, Intentions, and Texts 45 The Pudding 64 IV. What If Poe’s Humorous Tales Were Funny?: Poe’s “X-ing a Paragrab” and Twain’s “Journalism in Tennessee” 66 V. Hawthorne’s Last Tales and “The Custom-House” 77 VI. The Judge Dragged to the Bar: Melville, Shaw, and the Webster Murder Trial 94 VII. Mark Twain in His Short Works 110 VIII. The Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce 128 IX. Realism, the “Real,” and the Poet of Reality: Some Reflections on American Realists and the Poetry of Wallace Stevens 147 X. In the Shallow Light of the Present: The Moral Geography of Death Comes for the Archbishop 169 XI. Fitzgerald and Cather: The Great Gatsby 189 XII. A Source for “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” 204 XIII. Justice on the Reservation: Tony Hillerman’s Novels and the Conflict between Federal and Tribal Jurisdiction 212 A Postscript 224 XIV. The Trying Out of Genetic Inquiry 226 A Checklist of Publications 234 Index 240 A 240 B 240 C 241 D 242 E 242 F 242 G 242 H 243 I 243 J 243 K 244 L 244 M 244 N 245 O 245 P 245 Q 246 R 246 S 246 T 247 U 247 V 247 W 247 X 247 Y 247