American Literature's Aesthetic Dimensions
Cindy Weinstein and Christopher Looby
Abstract
Rethinking the category of aesthetics in light of recent developments in literary theory and social criticism, this book showcases the interpretive possibilities available to those who bring politics, culture, ideology, and conceptions of identity into their critiques. Chapters combine close readings of individual works and authors with more theoretical discussions of aesthetic theory and its relation to American literature. The introduction argues that aesthetics never left American literary critique. Instead, it casts the current “return to aesthetics” as the natural consequence of shortcomi ... More
Rethinking the category of aesthetics in light of recent developments in literary theory and social criticism, this book showcases the interpretive possibilities available to those who bring politics, culture, ideology, and conceptions of identity into their critiques. Chapters combine close readings of individual works and authors with more theoretical discussions of aesthetic theory and its relation to American literature. The introduction argues that aesthetics never left American literary critique. Instead, it casts the current “return to aesthetics” as the natural consequence of shortcomings in deconstruction and new historicism, which led to a reconfiguration of aesthetics. Subsequent chapters demonstrate the value and versatility of aesthetic considerations in literature, from eighteenth-century poetry to twentieth-century popular music. Organized into four groups—politics, form, gender, and theory—the chapters revisit the canonical works of Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Stephen Crane, introduce the overlooked texts of Constance Fenimore Woolson and Earl Lind, and unpack the complexities of the music of The Carpenters. Deeply rooted in an American context, the book explores literature's aesthetic dimensions in connection to American liberty and the formation of political selfhood.
Keywords:
aesthetics,
aesthetic theory,
American literature,
Henry James,
Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Stephen Crane,
Constance Fenimore Woolson,
Earl Lind,
The Carpenters
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780231156172 |
| Published to Columbia Scholarship Online: November 2015 |
DOI:10.7312/columbia/9780231156172.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Cindy Weinstein, editor
California Institute of Technology
Christopher Looby, editor
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