The Power of Historical Knowledge: Narrating the Past in Hawthorne, James, and Dreiser (Princeton Legacy Library) - Brossura

Mizruchi, Susan L.

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0691603162 ISBN 13: 9780691603162

Casa editrice: Princeton University Press, 2014

Riassunto

In this provocative study, Susan Mizruchi argues that the act of writing history is the key to the political concerns of American novelists. Using nineteenth-century theories of history as well as recent narratological models, she examines reconstructions of the past in The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Bostonians (1886), The Wings of the Dove (1902), and An American Tragedy (1925). Her special focus allows us to see that the efforts (on the part of characters and narrators alike) to reshape the past reveal both anxieties about the self and larger struggles for political power.

Professor Mizruchi demonstrates the deepening connections between narrative and political coercion from Hawthorne to Dreiser, whose novels (as she further shows) both incorporate, and portray their characters incorporating, the conditions of their contemporary worlds. Her argument addresses a major contemporary dialogue on the subversive qualities of American texts and the place of history in literary interpretation.

Originally published in 1988.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Susan L. Mizruchi, a professor of English at Boston University, specializes in American literature, cultural history, and film.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Princeton University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0691603162
• ISBN 13: 9780691603162
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 334