The Law of the Heart: Individualism and the Modern Self in American Literature - Softcover

Girgus, Sam B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0292739699 ISBN 13: 9780292739697

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1979

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Sam B. Girgus is Professor of English at Vanderbilt University and the author of many books.

Review:

"Girgus' argument is forceful throughout ... bound togetherby a sustained and compelling vision." - Sacvan Bercovitch

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 0292739699
• ISBN 13: 9780292739697
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192