Product Description

This book is a study of the development of New England literature and literary institutions from the American Revolutionary era to the late nineteenth century. It is the first and only book that deals with this particular time span. Professor Buell explores the foundations, growth and literary results of the professionalisation of the writing vocation. He pays particular attention to the major writers - Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Stowe and Dickinson - but surveys them with a number of lesser-known authors, and explores the conventions, values and institutions which affected them all. Some of the main topics covered include the distinctive features of the Early National and Antebellum periods in New England writing; the importance of certain literary genres (poetry, oratory and religious narrative etc.); the impact of Puritanism and its values; and the invention of acceptable conventions for portraying the New England landscape and institutions in literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1248857 in Books
• Published on: 1989-04-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 525 pages

From Library Journal
Buell, chairman of the English department at Oberlin College, proves that despite current theoretical objections and the proliferation of scholarship, literary history can be richly probing as well as informative. He is successful because he treats his dichotomiesneoclassical vs. romantic, popular vs. high, minor vs. major authorsas fluidly dialectical. The book's structure is also complementary: national issues such as the growth of literary institutions and genres are examined first, then related to the more regional concerns of reinventing the Puritan past and creating the literary space of the New England village. This is an extraordinary achievement, at once revisionary and balanced, speculative and solid. Martin Bickman, English Dept., Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.