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The Resource The Emerson effect : individualism and submission in America, Christopher Newfield

The Emerson effect : individualism and submission in America, Christopher Newfield

Creator
Author
Summary
What is the political sensibility of America's middle class? Where did it come from? What kind of life does it hope for? Newfield finds a major source in the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and offers a radically revisionist account of his powerful influence on individualism and democracy in the United States. Emerson's thought encompassed the most important cultural and social changes of his time - a new urban street culture, early versions of the business corporation, experimental communes, the rise of women authors, new forms of labor, a less father-centered family, frontier wars with American Indians, Mexicans, and others, and the controversy over slavery. Locating him at the center not only of philosophical but of national developments, Newfield shows how Emerson taught the middle class to respond to these changes through a form of personal identity best termed "submissive individualism." Newfield identifies a previously unacknowledged connection between liberal and authoritarian impulses in Emerson's work and explores its significance in various domains: domestic life, the changing New England economy, theories of poetic language, homoerotic friendship, and racial hierarchy. This provocative reassessment of Emerson's writing suggests that American middle class culture encourages deference rather than independence. But it also suggests that a better understanding of Emerson will help us develop the stronger, alternative forms of personhood he often desired himself. This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the development and the current limits of liberalism in America
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
vii, 278 pages
Contents
  • The submissive center
  • The authoritarian language of liberal religion
  • Democratic prophecy and corporate individualism
  • Friendly inequalities: Emerson and straight homoeroticism
  • Loving bondage: the authority of domestic remoteness
  • Market despotism: "the poet affirms the laws"
  • Corporatism and the genesis of liberal racism
  • Continuations: liberation from management
Isbn
9780226577005
Link
Instance
Label
The Emerson effect : individualism and submission in America
Title
The Emerson effect
Title remainder
individualism and submission in America
Statement of responsibility
Christopher Newfield
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
What is the political sensibility of America's middle class? Where did it come from? What kind of life does it hope for? Newfield finds a major source in the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and offers a radically revisionist account of his powerful influence on individualism and democracy in the United States. Emerson's thought encompassed the most important cultural and social changes of his time - a new urban street culture, early versions of the business corporation, experimental communes, the rise of women authors, new forms of labor, a less father-centered family, frontier wars with American Indians, Mexicans, and others, and the controversy over slavery. Locating him at the center not only of philosophical but of national developments, Newfield shows how Emerson taught the middle class to respond to these changes through a form of personal identity best termed "submissive individualism." Newfield identifies a previously unacknowledged connection between liberal and authoritarian impulses in Emerson's work and explores its significance in various domains: domestic life, the changing New England economy, theories of poetic language, homoerotic friendship, and racial hierarchy. This provocative reassessment of Emerson's writing suggests that American middle class culture encourages deference rather than independence. But it also suggests that a better understanding of Emerson will help us develop the stronger, alternative forms of personhood he often desired himself. This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the development and the current limits of liberalism in America
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Newfield, Christopher
Dewey number
814/.3
Index
index present
LC call number
PS1642.S58
LC item number
N49 1996
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Emerson, Ralph Waldo
  • Emerson, Ralph Waldo
  • Literature and society
  • Submissiveness
  • Individualism
  • United States
Label
The Emerson effect : individualism and submission in America, Christopher Newfield
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-262) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The submissive center -- The authoritarian language of liberal religion -- Democratic prophecy and corporate individualism -- Friendly inequalities: Emerson and straight homoeroticism -- Loving bondage: the authority of domestic remoteness -- Market despotism: "the poet affirms the laws" -- Corporatism and the genesis of liberal racism -- Continuations: liberation from management
Control code
ocm32821672
Dimensions
23 cm
Extent
vii, 278 pages
Isbn
9780226577005
Lccn
95023520
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
(OCoLC)32821672
Label
The Emerson effect : individualism and submission in America, Christopher Newfield
Link
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-262) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The submissive center -- The authoritarian language of liberal religion -- Democratic prophecy and corporate individualism -- Friendly inequalities: Emerson and straight homoeroticism -- Loving bondage: the authority of domestic remoteness -- Market despotism: "the poet affirms the laws" -- Corporatism and the genesis of liberal racism -- Continuations: liberation from management
Control code
ocm32821672
Dimensions
23 cm
Extent
vii, 278 pages
Isbn
9780226577005
Lccn
95023520
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
(OCoLC)32821672

Subject

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