Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Theo Davis offers a fresh account of the emergence of a national literature in the United States. Taking American literature's universalism as an organising force that must be explained rather than simply exposed, she contends that Emerson, Hawthorne, and Stowe's often noted investigations of experience are actually based in a belief that experience is an abstract category governed by typicality, not the property of the individual subject. Additionally, these authors locate the form of the literary work in the domain of abstract experience, projected out of - not embodied in - the text. After tracing the emergence of these beliefs out of Scottish common sense philosophy and through early American literary criticism, Davis analyses how American authors' prose seeks to work an art of abstract experience. In so doing, she reconsiders the place of form in modern literary studies.

American literature --- Experience in literature --- Literary form --- Literature and society --- History and criticism --- History --- Emerson, Ralph Waldo, --- Hawthorne, Nathaniel, --- Stowe, Harriet Beecher, --- Beecher Stowe, Harriet --- Beecher Stowe, Henriette --- Beecher Stowe, H. --- Stowe, Harriet Beecher --- Stowe, Harriet Elizabeth --- Bicher-Stou, Khenriet --- Stowe, H. B. --- Stou, Khenriet Bicher --- -Stowe, Enriqueta B. --- Stowe, Harriet Elizabeth Beecher --- Beecher, Harriet Elizabeth --- Bicher-Stou, G. --- Bicher-Stou, Garriet --- Stou, Garriet Bicher --- -Bicher-Stou, Ḣarrii̐et --- Bicher-Stou, Ḣ. --- Stou, Ḣarrii̐et Bicher --- -Beecher-Stowe, Harriet --- Ssu-tʻu-huo --- Beecher-Stowe, H. --- Stowe, H. Beecher --- -Bētser-Stoou --- Crowfield, Christopher --- Beecher, H. --- Sṭav, Hēriyaṭ Pīccar --- Sṭo, Haryeṭ Bits'er --- Bits'er Sṭo, Haryeṭ --- ביטשער סאאו --- ביטשער־סטאו --- סטאו, הערריעט ביטשער --- סטאו, הערריעט ביטשער, --- סטו, ביצ׳ר, --- ハリエットビーチャーストウ, --- Hawthorne, Nathaniel --- Gotorn, Nataniėlʹ --- Hotorn, Natanijel --- Huo-sang --- Huo-sang, Na-sa-ni-erh --- Hothorna, Netheniyala --- Готорн, Натаниэль --- האטארן, נאטאניעל, --- Huosang --- Huosang, Nasa'nier --- Nasa'nier Huosang --- 霍桑, --- 霍桑, 纳撒尼尔, --- 纳撒尼尔 霍桑, --- Hās̲ūran, Nātānīl --- Hās̲ūrn, Nātānīl --- هاثورن، ناتانيل --- Imarsana, Rāfa Vālḍō, --- Emerson, R. W. --- Emerson, Waldo, --- Emerson, R. Waldo --- Ėmerson, Ralʹf Uoldo, --- Ai-mo-sheng, --- Emarsan̲, --- אמרסון, רלף ולדו, --- עמערסון, ראלף וואלדא, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- United States --- Intellectual life --- Experience in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Arts and Humanities --- Literature