1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910807132003321

Autore

Porte Joel

Titolo

Consciousness and culture : Emerson and Thoreau reviewed / / Joel Porte

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2004

ISBN

1-281-73071-8

9786611730710

0-300-13057-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (257 p.)

Disciplina

810.9/003

Soggetti

National characteristics, American, in literature

Consciousness in literature

Culture in literature

New England Intellectual life 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 226-227) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ONE. Emerson, Thoreau, and the Double Consciousness -- TWO. Transcendental Antics -- THREE. The Problem of Emerson -- FOUR. Representing America -- FIVE. Emerson as Journalist -- SIX. Emerson at Harvard -- SEVEN. Holmes's Emerson -- EIGHT. Emerson's French Connection -- NINE. Henry Thoreau and the Reverend 125 Poluphloisboios Thalassa -- TEN. Society and Solitude -- ELEVEN. "God Himself Culminates in the Present 159 Moment": Thoughts on Thoreau's Faith -- TWELVE. "In Wildness is the Preservation of the World": 169 The Natural History of Henry David Thoreau -- THIRTEEN. Writing and Reading New Englandly -- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Emerson and Thoreau are the most celebrated odd couple of nineteenth-century American literature. Appearing to play the roles of benign mentor and eager disciple, they can also be seen as bitter rivals: America's foremost literary statesman, protective of his reputation, and an ambitious and sometimes refractory protégé. The truth, Joel Porte maintains, is that Emerson and Thoreau were complementary literary geniuses, mutually inspiring and inspired.In this book of essays, Porte



focuses on Emerson and Thoreau as writers. He traces their individual achievements and their points of intersection, arguing that both men, starting from a shared belief in the importance of "self-culture," produced a body of writing that helped move a decidedly provincial New England readership into the broader arena of international culture. It is a book that will appeal to all readers interested in the writings of Emerson and Thoreau.