Emerson's Literary CriticismRalph Waldo Emerson has always fascinated students of criticism and of American literature and thought. Emerson& ’ s Literary Criticism supplies the continuing need for an anthology. This collection brings together Emerson& ’ s literary criticism from a wide variety of sources. Eric W. Carlson has culled both the major statements of Emerson's critical principles and many secondary observations that illuminate them. Here are more than sixty selections on thirty-five critical topics. Headnotes provide valuable background. Carlson relates Emerson& ’ s critical principles to his philosophy, social thought, and literary milieu, and also to biographical details. Intended for the student as well as the researcher, this book amply illustrates Alfred Kazin's contention that Ralph Waldo Emerson was "one of the shrewdest critics who ever lived." |
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Page xviii
While Blake thinks of an integral fusion between matter and spirit , Emerson
conceives of spirit as flowing out of the matter which it has vitalized in the moment
of creation . " 18 The material object is only of temporary value in objectifying the
...
While Blake thinks of an integral fusion between matter and spirit , Emerson
conceives of spirit as flowing out of the matter which it has vitalized in the moment
of creation . " 18 The material object is only of temporary value in objectifying the
...
Page xxiii
I become a transparent eyeball ; I am nothing ; I see all ; the currents of the
Universal Being circulate through me ; I am part and parcel of God ” ( W 1 : 10 ) .
When the lens of the imagination is clear and in harmonic focus , the power of the
Spirit ...
I become a transparent eyeball ; I am nothing ; I see all ; the currents of the
Universal Being circulate through me ; I am part and parcel of God ” ( W 1 : 10 ) .
When the lens of the imagination is clear and in harmonic focus , the power of the
Spirit ...
Page 129
He once for all forsook the styles and standards and modes of thinking of London
and Paris , and the books read there and the aims pursued , and wrote Helvellyn
and Windermere and the dim spirits which these haunts harbored . There was ...
He once for all forsook the styles and standards and modes of thinking of London
and Paris , and the books read there and the aims pursued , and wrote Helvellyn
and Windermere and the dim spirits which these haunts harbored . There was ...
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Emerson's literary criticism
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictEditor Carlson gathered this selection of Emerson's literary criticism in 1979. The great poet here ruminates on "Art as Experience," "The Creative Process," "Writers and Books," and more. Read full review
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Common terms and phrases
American appear beauty become better called character Chaucer Coleridge common criticism culture delight draw Edited effect Emerson England English essay experience expression fact feeling flow genius give Goethe hand heart human ideal ideas imagination influence insight inspiration intellect interest journal language learned leaves lecture less light lines literary literature living look manners material meaning Milton mind moral nature never novel object organic original painting pass passage perception person philosopher picture poems poet poetic poetry praise present published reader reason relation represents rhetoric seems sense Shakspeare soul speak speech spirit stand style symbol theory things thought tion translation true truth universal verse whole wonderful Wordsworth write written