Focusing on the evolution of literature and literary institutions in New England, this study spans from the American Revolutionary era to the late nineteenth century. It explores how historical events and cultural shifts influenced literary expression and the establishment of a distinct literary identity in the region. Through an examination of key authors and works, the book highlights the significant contributions of New England to the broader American literary landscape.
Transcendentalism was the first major intellectual movement in U.S. history, championing the inherent divinity of each individual, as well as the value of collective social action. In the mid-nineteenth century, the movement took off, changing how Americans thought about religion, literature, the natural world, class distinctions, the role of women, and the existence of slavery. Edited by the eminent scholar Lawrence Buell, this comprehensive anthology contains the essential writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and their fellow visionaries. There are also reflections on the movement by Charles Dickens, Henry James, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. This remarkable volume introduces the radical innovations of a brilliant group of thinkers whose impact on religious thought, social reform, philosophy, and literature continues to reverberate in the twenty-first century.
A critical summary of the emerging discipline of ecocriticism. Written by one of the world's leading theorists in ecocriticism. Traces the history of the ecocritical movement from its roots in the 1970s through to its diversification and proliferation today.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a leading figure in the American Transcendentalist movement, with worldwide influence as essayist, social thinker, naturalist-environmentalist, and sage. Thoreau's Walden, an autobiographical narrative of his two-year sojourn in a self-built lakeside cabin, is one of the most widely studied works of American literature. His essay "Civil Disobedience" is a classic of American political activism and a model for nonviolent reform movements around the world. Esteemed Thoreau scholar Lawrence Buell gives due consideration to all significant aspects of Thoreau's art and thought while framing key issues and complexities in historical and literary context.