Reading Reality

E. Thomas Finan

ISBN 10: 0813945607 / ISBN 13: 9780813945606

Published by University of Virginia Press, US, 2021

About this Item

In the early 1800s, American critics warned about the danger of literature as a distraction from reality. Later critical accounts held that American literature during the antebellum period was idealistic and that literature grew more realistic after the horrors of the Civil War. By focusing on three leading American authors Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson Reading Reality challenges that analysis. Thomas Finan reveals how antebellum authors used words such as ""real"" and ""reality"" as key terms for literary discourse and claimed that the ""real"" was, in fact, central to their literary enterprise. He argues that for many Americans in the early nineteenth century, the ""real"" was often not synonymous with the physical world. It could refer to the spiritual, the sincere, or the individual's experience. He further explains how this awareness revises our understanding of the literary and conceptual strategies of American writers. By unpacking antebellum senses of the ""real,"" Finan casts new light on the formal traits of the period's literature, the pressures of the literary marketplace in nineteenth-century America, and the surprising possibilities of literary reading.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780813945606

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reading Reality
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press, US
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813945607
• ISBN 13: 9780813945606
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 15.24W x 3.18H x 22.86D centimeters 15.24 centimeters width by 3.18 centimeters height by 22.86 centimeters depth
• Weight: 315 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In the early 1800s, American critics warned about the danger of literature as a distraction from reality. Later critical accounts held that American literature during the antebellum period was idealistic and that literature grew more realistic after the horrors of the Civil War. By focusing on three leading American authors―Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson― Reading Reality challenges that analysis.

Thomas Finan reveals how antebellum authors used words such as "real" and "reality" as key terms for literary discourse and claimed that the "real" was, in fact, central to their literary enterprise. He argues that for many Americans in the early nineteenth century, the "real" was often not synonymous with the physical world. It could refer to the spiritual, the sincere, or the individual’s experience. He further explains how this awareness revises our understanding of the literary and conceptual strategies of American writers.

By unpacking antebellum senses of the "real," Finan casts new light on the formal traits of the period’s literature, the pressures of the literary marketplace in nineteenth-century America, and the surprising possibilities of literary reading.

About the Author

E. Thomas Finan is Senior Lecturer of Humanities at Boston University and author of The Other Side: Stories.