Nothing Abstract: Investigations in the American Literary ImaginationUniversity of Missouri Press, 2001 - 234 pages Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, Nothing Abstract is a collection of essays gathered over the past twenty years -- all of which, in some fashion, have to do with a genetic approach to literary study. In previous books, the author has traced the compositional histories of certain literary works, the course of individual careers, and the genesis of literary movements. In this book, Tom Quirk resists the direction taken by contemporary theory in favor of an approach to literature through source and influence study, the evolution of a writer's achievement, the establishment of biographical or other contexts, and the transition from one literary era to another. |
Contents
| 13 | |
Authors Intentions and Texts | 32 |
What If Poes Humorous Tales Were Funny? Poes Xing | 53 |
Hawthornes Last Tales and The CustomHouse | 64 |
Melville Shaw and | 81 |
Mark Twain in His Short Works | 97 |
The Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce | 115 |
Some | 134 |
The Moral Geography | 156 |
The Great Gatsby | 176 |
A Source for Where Are You Going Where Have | 191 |
The Trying Out of Genetic Inquiry | 213 |
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Nothing Abstract: Investigations in the American Literary Imagination Tom Quirk Limited preview - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Alexander’s Ambrose Bierce American Ántonia Archbishop Arnold Friend artistic Billy Budd Bowlegs character Charles Schmid Clemens comic Connie consciousness creation creative critical Death Comes dramatic edition editor essay experience fact Feathertop federal Fitzgerald Gatsby Gatsby’s Hawthorne Hawthorne's Henry James Herman Melville Howells Huckleberry Finn human imagination intention interest intertext John Judge Shaw jurisdiction Kenneth Burke Latour Leaphorn Lemuel Shaw literary literature living Main-street malice Mark Twain matter means Melville's mind Moby-Dick murder narrative narrator natural Navajo Nick novel Oates's observed once Parkman passage perception perhaps play Poe’s poems poet poetry problem published reader realism reality romantic satire Scarlet Letter Schmid Scott Fitzgerald seems sense short fiction short story sketch sort source and influence Source-Influence Stone Face tale textual things tion trial University Press Wallace Stevens Webster Willa Cather William James writing wrote York Zuni