In this study of the rhetoric of American writings on language,
Michael Kramer argues that the prevalent critical distinction
between imaginative and nonimaginative writing is of limited
theoretical use. Breaking down the artificial, disciplinary
barriers between two areas of scholarly inquiry--the literature of
the American Renaissance and the study of language in the United
States between the Revolution and the Civil War--Kramer finds in
various walks of intellectual life a broad range of writers who
"imagined language" for the new experiment in self-government. Each
of these men combined ideas about language with ideas about America
so as to form cultural fictions, or creative renderings of the
nation--its meaning, its character, and how it worked. In order to
reassess American linguistic and literary nationalism, Kramer
allows Noah Webster, whose influential grammatical and
lexicographic works have been considered only marginal to literary
history, to share the stage with more conventionally literary
figures--the neglected Longfellow and the canonical Whitman. Then
an essay on The Federalist and the pragmatic language-related
problems faced by the founding fathers introduces revisionary
analyses of two New England writers who confronted American culture
and society through their Romantic critiques of language: the
minister and theologian Horace Bushnell and Nathaniel
Hawthorne.
Originally published in 1991.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly
increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the
thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
its founding in 1905.
General
Imprint: |
Princeton University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Princeton Legacy Library |
Release date: |
July 2014 |
First published: |
July 2014 |
Authors: |
Michael P. Kramer
|
Dimensions: |
254 x 178 x 14mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
260 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-691-60533-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Language & Literature >
Language & linguistics >
General
|
LSN: |
0-691-60533-5 |
Barcode: |
9780691605333 |
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