Read more
While previous collections of Emerson essays have tended to be a sort of 'stock-taking' or 'retrospective' look at Emerson scholarship, the present collection follows a more 'prospective' trajectory for Emerson studies based on the recent increase in global perspectives in nearly all fields of humanistic studies. The present collection is divided into four main sections: "Emerson, Europe, and Beyond;" "Emerson and Science;" "Emerson Thinking;" "and "Emerson and Activism." The first category emphasizes the global perspective in Emerson's literary and cultural relations, followed closely by two other "transnational" categories - Emerson's relations in the international arenas of science and philosophy - and concluding with the final category, which addresses the end purpose of Emerson's project: fully realized human beings whose actions, directly and indirectly, help to create a society in which individuals are free to develop their capacities fully.
Transnational and global perspectives are becoming more recognized and more commonplace in the academy and the world at large. Evidence for such developing perspectives is not hard to find: national and international conferences, new books, and the increasing university courses and programs in World Literature, all reflect a move toward viewing Emerson and literature in general from broader, more inclusive perspectives. The first four categories that follow - "Emerson, Europe, and Beyond" - gives us seven perspectives on Emerson's international influence, ranging from Stephen L. Tanner's gem-like essay on English Traits, to Steve Adisasmito-Smith's trail-blazing Hindu scholarship, to Jan Stievermann's explication of Emerson's vision of "an American World Literature."
In the "Emerson and Science" section, four essays range from Michael P. Branch's examination of Emerson's early lectures on natural science, to Branka Arsic's explorations of science from a broad Emersonian view, to David M. Robinson's and Laura Walls' very specific essays on Emerson's encounters with the cutting-edge science of his mature period.
In "Emerson Thinking," five scholars examine Emerson's broad thought, which gives evidence of philosophical influence from all times and places through suck topics as human subjectivity and its expression, while George J. Stack and Mary DiMaria examine Emerson's philosophical similarities to and disparities from the French foundational thinkers of the Postmodern theory revolution in literary studies. Finally, in the "Emerson and Activism" section, David S. Reynolds, Len Gougeon, and T. Gregory Garvey examine Emersonian and Transcendental influences on the abolition movement, and Eduardo Cadava expands activism to include more recent "economic oppression and colonialist and racist exclusions," which ultimately can be seen as part of a worldwide post-colonial literary movement and an awareness of the dark side of globalism. All of these essays to a greater or lesser degree are concerned with influences of literature and thought that are cycled through the individual, the culture, and the global community.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Emerson for the Twenty-first Century: Global Perspectives on an American Icon - Barry Tharaud
I. Emerson, Europe, and Beyond
Emerson, Literary Globalism, and the Circularity of Influence - Barry Tharaud
The Theme of Mind in Emerson's English Traits - Stephen L. Tanner
Beauty Meets Beast: Emerson's English Traits - T. S. McMillin
A Tale of Three Cities: Emerson, Louis-Philippe, and Transatlantic Uses of Great Men - Wesley T. Mott
East of Emerson - Susan L. Dunston
Transcendental Brahmin: Emerson's "Hindu" Sentiments - Steven Adisasmito-Smith
"We want men ... who can open their eyes wider than to a nationality:" Ralph Waldo Emerson's Vision of an American World Literature - Jan Stievermann
II. Emerson and Science
Paths to Nature: Emerson's Early Natural History Lectures - Michael P. Branch
Nocturnal Outings: Emerson on Dreams - Branka Arsic
British Science, the London Lectures, and Emerson's Philosophical Reorientation - David M. Robinson
"Every truth tends to become a power:" Emerson, Faraday, and the Minding of Matter - Laura Dassow Walls
III. Emerson Thinking
Emerson on Nature and the Rhetoric of Thought - Gayle L. Smith
Seeing Metaphors - David LaRocca
Emerson's Autobiographical Philosophy - John Ronan
Death, Love, and Emerson's Poetry - John Michael
Emerson and Postmodernism - George J. Stack and Mary DiMaria
IV. Emerson and Activism
Transcendentalism, Transnationalism, and Antislavery Violence: Concord's Embrace of John Brown - David S. Reynolds
"Only justice satisfies all:" Emerson's Militant Transcendentalism - Len Gougeon
Simular Man: Emerson and Cosmopolitan Identity - T. Gregory Garvey
The Guano of History - Eduardo Cadava
Abstracts
Notes on Contributors
Index
About the author
Barry Tharaud is chair of the Department of English at Fatih University, Istanbul.
