American Literature's Aesthetic Dimensions

Weinstein, Cindy (EDT)/ Looby, Christopher (EDT)

Columbia University Press（2012/07発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 440 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780231156172
• DDC分類 810.9

Full Description

Rethinking the category of aesthetics in light of recent developments in literary theory and social criticism, the contributors to this volume showcase the interpretive possibilities available to those who bring politics, culture, ideology, and conceptions of identity into their critiques. Essays combine close readings of individual works and authors with more theoretical discussions of aesthetic theory and its relation to American literature. In their introduction, Weinstein and Looby argue that aesthetics never left American literary critique. Instead, the essay casts the current "return to aesthetics" as the natural consequence of shortcomings in deconstruction and new historicism, which led to a reconfiguration of aesthetics. Subsequent essays demonstrate the value and versatility of aesthetic considerations in literature, from eighteenth-century poetry to twentieth-century popular music. Organized into four groups-politics, form, gender, and theory-contributors revisit the canonical works of Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Stephen Crane, introduce the overlooked texts of Constance Fenimore Woolson and Earl Lind, and unpack the complexities of the music of The Carpenters.
Deeply rooted in an American context, these essays explore literature's aesthetic dimensions in connection to American liberty and the formation of political selfhood. Contributors include Edward Cahill, Ivy G. Wilson, June Ellison, Dorri Beam, Christopher Castiglia, Christopher Looby, Wendy Steiner, Cindy Weinstein, Trish Loughran, Jonathan Freedman, Elisa New, Dorothy Hale, Mary Esteve, Eric Lott, Sianne Ngai

Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction, by Cindy Weinstein and Christopher LoobyPart 1: Aesthetics and the Politics of FreedomLiberty of the Imagination in Revolutionary America, by Edward Cahill The Writing on the Wall: Revolutionary Aesthetics and Interior Spaces Stephen Crane's Refrain, by Ivy G. Wilson Lyric Citizenship in Post 9/11 Performance: Sekou Sundiata's the 51st (dream) state, by June EllisonPart 2: Aesthetics and the Representation of SexualityAesthetics Beyond the Actual: The Marble Faun and Romantic Sociability, Christopher Castiglia Henry James, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and the Figure in the Carpet, by Dorri Beam Sexuality's Aesthetic Dimension: Kant and the Autobiography of an Androgyne, by Christopher Looby From Hawthorne to Hairspray: American Anxieties About Beauty, by Wendy SteinerPart 3: Aesthetics and the Reading of FormWhen is Now? Poe's Aesthetics of Temporality, by Cindy Weinstein Reading in the Present Tense: Benito Cereno and the Time of Reading, by Trish Loughran What Maggie Knew: Game Theory, The Golden Bowl, and the Critical Possibilities of Aesthetic Knowledge, by Jonathan Freedman with an addendum by Nan Zhang Da Upon a Peak in Beinecke: The Beauty of the Book in the Poetry of Susan Howe, by Elisa NewPart 4: Aesthetics and the Question of TheoryWarped Conjunctions: Jacques Ranciere and African American Twoness, by Nancy Bentley Aesthetics and the New Ethics: Theorizing the Novel in the Twenty-First Century, by Dorothy Hale Postwar Pastoral: The Art of Happiness in Philip Roth, by Mary Esteve Perfect Is Dead: Karen Carpenter, Theodor Adorno, and the Radio; or, If Hooks Could Kill, by Eric Lott Network Aesthetics: Juliana Spahr's The Transformation and Bruno Latour's Reassembling the Social, by Sianne NgaiAfterword Contributors Index