William James and Literary Studies

Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-009-68863-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 438 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 858 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Literature and Philosophy

Why does William James matter for literary studies? And what can the practice of literary criticism bring to our reading of James? While James is widely credited as a founding figure for the fields of psychology, philosophy, religious studies, and progressive education, his equal significance for the field of literary criticism has been comparatively neglected. By modelling a variety of literary critical approaches to reading James and investigating James's equally various approaches to literature, this book demonstrates how his work historically informs and prospectively transforms the way we think about the bedrock premises of literary study – namely, style, influence, and method. The volume's diverse contributions unfold and elaborate these three facets of James's literary critical paradigm as they manifest in the rousing character of his sentences, in the impactful disseminations of his formative relationships, and in his uniquely programmatic responsiveness to the urgent issues of his time.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stanley, Kate

Case, Kristen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: how to do things with William James Kristen Case and Kate Stanley; Part I. Style: 1. Teaching style: a conversation on Jamesian futures beyond the academy and its disciplines Angela Duckworth, Elisa New and Ross Weissman; 2. 'Intellectual Larking': principles, pedagogy, and practice in William James Jane F. Thrailkill; 3. 'Let the reader try this': on style in William James Alicia M. DeSantis; 4. 'Blind and dead': William James and aesthetic education Michael W. Clune; 5. James and aesthetics: paradoxes of language and feeling Richard Shusterman; 6. That adorable genius, William James Joan Richardson; Part II. Influence: 7. Jamesian modernism Steven Meyer; 8. Hermeneutics of suffering: William James – Emerson – Gadamer Dustin Breitenwischer; 9. Fixing belief in 'Washington Square' Paul Grimstad; 10. William James and the modernist public sphere Stephanie L. Hawkins; 11. William James, attention, and post-1945 American poetry Andrew Epstein; 12. William James, the 'unthought known,' and aesthetic experience Randall Knoper; Part III. Methods: 13. The will to make believe Nicholas Gaskill; 14. Literature as a guide to the world as experienced, or: reading with William James (and against Sigmund Freud) Laura Bieger; 15. William James and the politics of pragmatism in the Anthropocene Melanie Sehgal; 16. Facing the Anthropocene with William James Thom Dancer; 17. The trouble with experience: pragmatism, race, and James's debt to Peirce Hannah Wells; 18. Derek Walcott as pragmatist strong poet: illuminating new directions for Jamesian theorizing in literary studies Walton Muyumba; Coda: 19. Jamesian pedagogy in seven scenes Kristen Case and Kate Stanley.

Über Autor(innen)

Stanley, Kate
Kate Stanley is Associate Professor of English at the University of Western Ontario. She is the author of Practices of Surprise in American Literature After Emerson (2018).

Case, Kristen
Kristen Case is the author of two scholarly books, American Poetry and Poetic Practice (2017) and Keeping Time: Henry David Thoreau's Kalendar, as well as three books of poetry. She is Executive Director of the Monson Seminar, a program for first-generation and Pell-eligible college students.