Read Predicting the Past: The Paradoxes of American Literary History

Predicting the Past: The Paradoxes of American Literary History

Michael Boyden

4.9/5 (15396 ratings)

Description:Drawing from the social theories of Niklas Luhmann and Mary Douglas, Predicting the Past advocates a reflexive understanding of the paradoxical institutional dynamic of American literary history as a professional discipline and field of study. Contrary to most disciplinary accounts, Michael Boyden resists the utopian impulse to offer supposedly definitive solutions for the legitimation crises besetting American literature studies by "going beyond" its inherited racist, classist, and sexist underpinnings. Approaching the existence of the American literary tradition as a typically modern problem generating diverse but functionally equivalent solutions, Boyden argues how its peculiarity does not, as is often supposed, reside in its restrictive exclusivity but rather in its massive inclusivity, which drives it to constantly revert to a self-negating "beyond" perspective. Predicting the Past covers a broad range of literary histories and reference works, from Rufus Griswold's 1847 Prose Writers of America to Sacvan Bercovitch's monumental Cambridge History of American Literature. Throughout, Boyden focuses on particular themes and topics illustrating the self-induced complexity of American literary history, such as the early "Anglocentric" roots theories of American literature; the debate on contemporary authors in the age of naturalism; the plurilingual ethnocentrism of the pioneer Americanists of the mid-twentieth century; and the genealogical misrepresentation of founding figures such as Jonathan Edwards, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Lowell.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Predicting the Past: The Paradoxes of American Literary History. To get started finding Predicting the Past: The Paradoxes of American Literary History, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: —

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: —

Release: —

ISBN: 9058677311

Description: Drawing from the social theories of Niklas Luhmann and Mary Douglas, Predicting the Past advocates a reflexive understanding of the paradoxical institutional dynamic of American literary history as a professional discipline and field of study. Contrary to most disciplinary accounts, Michael Boyden resists the utopian impulse to offer supposedly definitive solutions for the legitimation crises besetting American literature studies by "going beyond" its inherited racist, classist, and sexist underpinnings. Approaching the existence of the American literary tradition as a typically modern problem generating diverse but functionally equivalent solutions, Boyden argues how its peculiarity does not, as is often supposed, reside in its restrictive exclusivity but rather in its massive inclusivity, which drives it to constantly revert to a self-negating "beyond" perspective. Predicting the Past covers a broad range of literary histories and reference works, from Rufus Griswold's 1847 Prose Writers of America to Sacvan Bercovitch's monumental Cambridge History of American Literature. Throughout, Boyden focuses on particular themes and topics illustrating the self-induced complexity of American literary history, such as the early "Anglocentric" roots theories of American literature; the debate on contemporary authors in the age of naturalism; the plurilingual ethnocentrism of the pioneer Americanists of the mid-twentieth century; and the genealogical misrepresentation of founding figures such as Jonathan Edwards, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Lowell.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Predicting the Past: The Paradoxes of American Literary History. To get started finding Predicting the Past: The Paradoxes of American Literary History, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Special Offer | $0.00

Special Offer! | $0.00

Predicting the Past: The Paradoxes of American Literary History

Predicting the Past: The Paradoxes of American Literary History

More Books

Climate and American Literature (Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture)

Climate and American Literature (Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture)

Tales of Transit: Narrative Migrant Spaces in Atlantic Perspective, 1850-1950 (American Studies)

Tales of Transit: Narrative Migrant Spaces in Atlantic Perspective, 1850-1950 (American Studies)

Climate and American Literature

Climate and American Literature

Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules

Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules

Climate and the Picturesque in the American Tropics (Oxford Studies in American Literary History)

Climate and the Picturesque in the American Tropics (Oxford Studies in American Literary History)

The Scotiabank Giller Prize 15 Years: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Canadian Fiction.

The Scotiabank Giller Prize 15 Years: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Canadian Fiction.

Broken Trail: Stumbling Towards the Light Along the Appalachian Trail

Broken Trail: Stumbling Towards the Light Along the Appalachian Trail