Promotional Information

Offers a revised view of the American Renaissance that shows (a) how the debates about political representatives as they developed around the framing and ratifications of the U.S. Constitution have structured the rhetoric of subsequent generations of writers and (b) how literary historians have misconceived the relationship of Emerson to Whitman

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction: Representative Strategies 1
1. The Rise of the Representational Arts in the United States 28
2. Rereading Emerson/Whitman 75
3. Class Actions 116
4. Representing Men 161
Notes 207
Works Consulted 239
Index 263

About the Author

Jay Grossman is Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern University.

Reviews

"Reconstituting the American Renaissance will dramatically change the way scholars view the relationship of Whitman to Emerson and the character of their literary enterprises... The argumentative center of the book and a tour-de-force worth the price of admission is Jay Grossman's reading of Emerson's famous note to Whitman 'greeting him at the beginning of a great career.' Against the entire weight of previous scholarship Grossman convincingly shows the letter for what it is, a mode of damning with faint praise that will not grant to Whitman the status of poet or his verse the status of poetry." Jay Fliegelman, Stanford University