Aesthetic Individualism And Practical Intellect: American Allegory In Emerson, Thoreau, Adams, And James (princeton Legacy Library)
by Olaf Hansen /
2014 / English / PDF
8.1 MB Download
Addressing vital issues in the current revision of American
literary studies, Olaf Hansen carries out an exposition of
American writing as a philosophical tradition. His broad and
comparative view of American culture reveals the importance of
the American allegory as a genuine artistic and intellectual
style and as a distinct mode of thought particularly suited to
express the philosophical legacy of transcendentalism. Hansen
traces intellectual and cultural continuities and disruptions
from Emerson through Thoreau and Henry Adams to William James,
paying special attention to the modernism of transcendental
thought and to its quality as a valid philosophy in its own
right. Concerned with defining ideas of self, selfhood, and
subjectivity and with moral tradition as an act of creating order
out of the cosmos, the American allegory provided a basic and
frequently overlooked link between transcendentalism and
pragmatism. Its "suggestive incompleteness" combined in a highly
dialectic manner the essence of both enlightenment and
romanticism. Characterized neither by absolute objectivity nor by
absolute subjectivity, it allowed speculation about the meaning
of reality and about humankind's place in a realm of appearances.
Addressing vital issues in the current revision of American
literary studies, Olaf Hansen carries out an exposition of
American writing as a philosophical tradition. His broad and
comparative view of American culture reveals the importance of
the American allegory as a genuine artistic and intellectual
style and as a distinct mode of thought particularly suited to
express the philosophical legacy of transcendentalism. Hansen
traces intellectual and cultural continuities and disruptions
from Emerson through Thoreau and Henry Adams to William James,
paying special attention to the modernism of transcendental
thought and to its quality as a valid philosophy in its own
right. Concerned with defining ideas of self, selfhood, and
subjectivity and with moral tradition as an act of creating order
out of the cosmos, the American allegory provided a basic and
frequently overlooked link between transcendentalism and
pragmatism. Its "suggestive incompleteness" combined in a highly
dialectic manner the essence of both enlightenment and
romanticism. Characterized neither by absolute objectivity nor by
absolute subjectivity, it allowed speculation about the meaning
of reality and about humankind's place in a realm of appearances.
Originally published in 1990.
Originally published in 1990.
The
ThePrinceton Legacy Library
Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest
print-on-demand technology to again make available previously
out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton
University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of
these important books while presenting them in durable paperback
and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library
is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found
in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press
since its founding in 1905.
uses the latest
print-on-demand technology to again make available previously
out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton
University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of
these important books while presenting them in durable paperback
and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library
is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found
in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press
since its founding in 1905.