Emerson's Ghosts

"In this innovative study, Randall Fuller examines the way influential twentieth-century critics have understood and deployed Emerson as part of their own larger projects aimed at reconceiving America. He examines previously unpublished material and original research on Van Wyck Brooks, Perry Miller. F.O. Matthiessen, and Sacvan Bercovitch along with other supporting thinkers. Emerging from this research is not only the first in-depth account of Emerson's cultural construction but also a deeply engaging institutional history of American literary studies in the twentieth century." "A work of American literary history, Emerson's Ghosts is also a study of how a scholar's individual perspective and prevailing cultural conditions can merge and impel the critic to redirect the course of a present moment - often experienced as disappointing and unfulfilled - toward a desired future. When an engaged but theoretical mind meets with an impassive history, some of our most imaginative and brilliant critics have responded, often and suggestively, by turning toward Emerson. Fuller speculates about why - why that turn - and considers what it has meant for those who follow. His answers provide compelling reading for anyone interested in the convergent forces that have carved the panorama of American cultural history."--Jacket.