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The Law of the Heart : Individualism and the Modern Self in American Literature / Sam B. Girgus.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©1979Description: 1 online resource (192 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780292772939
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 810.9
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 The modem tradition and the American self : Individualism and the perverted self -- Chapter 2 Poe and the transcendent self -- Chapter 3 Emerson and Brownson: The scholar; the self, and society -- Chapter 4 Whitman: Culture and self -- Chapter 5 Howells: The rebel in the one-dimensional age -- Chapter 6 Inner death and freedom in Henry James -- Chapter 7 Charles Ives: A modern perversion of transcendentalism -- Chapter 8 Beyond the Diver complex: The dynamics of modem individualism in F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Chapter 9 The radical individualism of William James: A theory of experience and the self for today -- Chapter 10 After the sixties: The continuing search -- Notes -- Index
Summary: The Law of the Heart is a vigorous challenge to the prevailing concept of the “antidemocratic” image of the self in the American literary and cultural tradition. Sam B. Girgus counters this interpretation and attempts to develop a new understanding of democratic individualism and liberal humanism in American literature under the rubric of literary modernism. The image of the individual self who retreats inward, conforming to a distorted “law of the heart,” emerges from the works of such writers as Cooper and Poe and composer Charles Ives. Yet, as Girgus shows, other American writers relate the idea of the self to reality and culture in a more complex way: the self confronts and is reconciled to the paradox of history and reality. In Girgus’ view, the tradition of pragmatic, humanistic individualism provides a foundation for a future where individual liberty is a major priority. He uses literary modernism as a bridge for relating contemporary social conditions to crises of the American self and culture as seen in the works of writers including Emerson, Howells, Whitman, Henry James, William James, Fitzgerald, Bellow, and McLuhan.
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Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780292772939

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 The modem tradition and the American self : Individualism and the perverted self -- Chapter 2 Poe and the transcendent self -- Chapter 3 Emerson and Brownson: The scholar; the self, and society -- Chapter 4 Whitman: Culture and self -- Chapter 5 Howells: The rebel in the one-dimensional age -- Chapter 6 Inner death and freedom in Henry James -- Chapter 7 Charles Ives: A modern perversion of transcendentalism -- Chapter 8 Beyond the Diver complex: The dynamics of modem individualism in F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Chapter 9 The radical individualism of William James: A theory of experience and the self for today -- Chapter 10 After the sixties: The continuing search -- Notes -- Index

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The Law of the Heart is a vigorous challenge to the prevailing concept of the “antidemocratic” image of the self in the American literary and cultural tradition. Sam B. Girgus counters this interpretation and attempts to develop a new understanding of democratic individualism and liberal humanism in American literature under the rubric of literary modernism. The image of the individual self who retreats inward, conforming to a distorted “law of the heart,” emerges from the works of such writers as Cooper and Poe and composer Charles Ives. Yet, as Girgus shows, other American writers relate the idea of the self to reality and culture in a more complex way: the self confronts and is reconciled to the paradox of history and reality. In Girgus’ view, the tradition of pragmatic, humanistic individualism provides a foundation for a future where individual liberty is a major priority. He uses literary modernism as a bridge for relating contemporary social conditions to crises of the American self and culture as seen in the works of writers including Emerson, Howells, Whitman, Henry James, William James, Fitzgerald, Bellow, and McLuhan.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2022)