| Description |
x, 188 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [179]-184) and index. |
| Contents |
Romantic truth -- Ethics and the face : Hawthorne and Levinas -- Ethics and politics : the question of engagement -- Chiefly about Coverdale : The Blithedale romance -- Forgetting the secret -- The exile in history : The marble faun -- Epilogue : The elixir of life. |
| Summary |
"In Hawthorne's Shyness, Clark Davis offers a challenge to current trends in American literary studies and a striking new perspective on the writing of Nathaniel Hawthorne. He proposes an alternative to recent, ideologically driven criticism, including the range of approaches under the banner of New Historicism which continue to dominate the study of American literature. Drawing on ethical theorists including Heidegger, Levinas, Davidson, and Cavell, he finds new models for the relationship between critic and author in their philosophies of engagement with the Other. While these ideas have been increasingly influential in the criticism of European literature, they have so far made fewer inroads into American letters. Davis shows how a "hermeneutics of respect" can transform our relationship to American writers and provide a new, ethically complex understanding of authorial intention."--BOOK JACKET. |
| Subject |
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 -- Ethics.
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 -- Political and social views.
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Politics and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
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Romanticism -- United States.
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Ethics in literature.
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| ISBN |
080188098X (hardcover : alk. paper) |
|
9780801880988 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
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