| Description |
1 online resource (viii, 294 pages). |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Series |
Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 106
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Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 106.
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| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-280) and index. |
| Summary |
The Complicity of Imagination examines the rich and complex relationship between four nineteenth-century authors and the culture and politics of seventeenth-century England. Challenging the notion that antebellum Americans were burdened by a sense of cultural inferiority in both their thought and their writing, this study portrays an American Renaissance whose writers were familiar enough with the literature and controversies of seventeenth-century England to appropriate its cultural artifacts for their own purposes. |
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American writers such as Emerson, Fuller, Thoreau, and Melville consciously absorbed literary, philosophical, and political strategies from their reading in the earlier period in order to interrogate the orthodoxies of American Whigs, as well as the agenda of the radical Democratic 'Young Americans.' By exploring the broader cultural implications of intertextual relationships, this book demonstrates how literary texts participate in the artistic, political, and theological tensions within American culture. |
| Contents |
Introduction: Antebellum America and the culture of seventeenth-century England -- Cultural predicaments and authorial responses -- "A seraph's eloquence": Emerson's inspired language and Milton's apocalyptic prose -- Margaret Fuller's "The Two Herberts," Emerson, and the disavowal of sequestered virtue -- "As if a green bough were laid across the page": Thoreau's seventeenth-century landscapes and extravagant personae -- Melville's Mardi and Moby-Dick, marvelous travel narratives, and seventeenth-century methods of inquiry -- Surmising the infidel: Melville reads Milton. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Fuller, Margaret, 1810-1850 -- Knowledge and learning -- England.
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Fuller, Margaret, 1810-1850. |
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England. |
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Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882 -- Knowledge and learning -- England.
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Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882. |
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Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862 -- Knowledge and learning -- England.
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Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862. |
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Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 -- Knowledge and learning -- England.
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Melville, Herman, 1819-1891. |
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Fuller, Margaret, 1810-1850. |
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Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882. |
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Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862. |
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Melville, Herman, 1819-1891. |
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American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
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American literature. |
| Chronological Term |
19th century |
| Subject |
English literature -- Appreciation -- United States.
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English literature -- Appreciation. |
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United States. |
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American literature -- English influences.
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American literature -- English influences. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Grey, Robin (Robin Sandra). Complicity of imagination. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1997 0521495385 (DLC) 96002284 (OCoLC)34191979 |
| ISBN |
0511003730 (electronic book) |
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9780511003738 (electronic book) |
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0521495385 (hardcover) |
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