A Natural History of Pragmatism

The Fact of Feeling from Jonathan Edwards to Gertrude Stein
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-521-83748-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 152, 346 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 713 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture

Joan Richardson provides a fascinating and compelling account of the emergence of the quintessential American philosophy: pragmatism. She demonstrates pragmatism's engagement with various branches of the natural sciences and traces the development of Jamesian pragmatism from the late nineteenth century through modernism, following its pointings into the present. Richardson combines strands from America's religious experience with scientific information to offer interpretations that break new ground in literary and cultural history. This book exemplifies the value of interdisciplinary approaches to producing literary criticism. In a series of highly original readings of Edwards, Emerson, William and Henry James, Stevens, and Stein, A Natural History of Pragmatism tracks the interplay of religious motive, scientific speculation, and literature in shaping an American aesthetic. Wide-ranging and bold, this groundbreaking book will be essential reading for all students and scholars of American literature.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Richardson, Joan

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Christliche Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Pragmatismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Geschichte der Theologie, Einzelne Theologen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: frontier instances; 2. In Jonathan Edwards's room of the idea; 3. Emerson's moving pictures; 4. William James's feeling of if; 5. Henry James's more than rational distortion; 6. Wallace Stevens's radiant and productive atmosphere; 7. Gertrude Stein, James's Melancthon/a; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Richardson, Joan
Joan Richardson is Professor of English, Comparative Literature and American Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY.