Social Self

The Social Self reinterprets in an innovative way a central feature of nineteenth-century American culture: the literary representation of selfhood. Taking issue with literary histories that have routinely reduced nineteenth-century culture to simple dichotomies between dominant and oppositional discourses, Joseph Alkana argues that writers such as Hawthorne, Howells, and William James treated ideas about the self with far more complexity than such polarities imply. By showing how these and other nineteenth-century authors handled competing commitments to sociality and the individual consciousness, The Social Self offers an original and provocative reassessment of a fundamental American literary preoccupation and radically revises traditional and recent narratives of American literary culture.

About the author

Joseph Alkana is associate professor of English at the University of Miami.

Summary

The folklore surrounding history's towering figures often overshadows actual scholarship, both in terms of quantity and in terms of prevalence in the public consciousness. As one might expect with a revered national icon, nearly every facet of Abraham Lin

Product details

• Authors: Joseph Alkana
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 21.11.1996
• EAN: 9780813119717
• ISBN: 978-0-8131-1971-7
• No. of pages: 176
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 235 mm x 14 mm
• Weight: 417 g
• Series: Institutional Studies
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies