Readings at the Edge of Literature
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Readings at the Edge of Literature
Myra Jehlen’s aim in these essays is to read for what she calls the edge of literature: the point at which writing seems unable to say more, which is also, for Jehlen, the threshold of the real. It is here, she argues, that the central paradoxes of the American project become clear—self-reliance and responsibility, universal equality and the pursuit of empire, writing from the heart and representing shared values and ideas. Developing these paradoxes to their utmost tension, American writers often produce penetrating critiques of American society without puncturing its basic myths. For instance, Mark Twain’s Puddn’head Wilson begins as a slashing satire of racism, only to conclude by demonstrating that even an invisible portion of black blood can make a man a murderer.
Throughout these essays Jehlen demonstrates the crucial role that the process of writing itself plays in unfolding these paradoxes, whether in the form of novels by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Virginia Woolf; the histories of Captain John Smith; or even a work of architecture, such as the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao.
Throughout these essays Jehlen demonstrates the crucial role that the process of writing itself plays in unfolding these paradoxes, whether in the form of novels by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Virginia Woolf; the histories of Captain John Smith; or even a work of architecture, such as the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao.
Reviews
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. "Imitate Jesus and Socrates" - The Making of a Good American
2. J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur - A Monarcho-Anarchist in Revolutionary America
3. The Novel and the Middle Class in America
4. The Family Militant - Domesticity versus Slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
5. Banned in Concord - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Classic American Literature
6. The Ties that Bind - Race and Sex in Puddn’head Wilson
7. Archimedes and the Paradox of Feminist Criticism
8. Why Did the European Cross the Ocean?
9. History before the Fact - The Underdetermined John Smith
10. History beside the Fact - What We Learn from A True and Exact History of Barbadoes
11. An Empire of One’s Own - Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out
12. Guggenheim in Bilbao
Notes
Index
Introduction
1. "Imitate Jesus and Socrates" - The Making of a Good American
2. J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur - A Monarcho-Anarchist in Revolutionary America
3. The Novel and the Middle Class in America
4. The Family Militant - Domesticity versus Slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
5. Banned in Concord - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Classic American Literature
6. The Ties that Bind - Race and Sex in Puddn’head Wilson
7. Archimedes and the Paradox of Feminist Criticism
8. Why Did the European Cross the Ocean?
9. History before the Fact - The Underdetermined John Smith
10. History beside the Fact - What We Learn from A True and Exact History of Barbadoes
11. An Empire of One’s Own - Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out
12. Guggenheim in Bilbao
Notes
Index