Research Catalog
The social self : Hawthorne, Howells, William James, and nineteenth-century psychology
- Title
- The social self : Hawthorne, Howells, William James, and nineteenth-century psychology / Joseph Alkana.
- Author
- Alkana, Joseph, 1953-
- Publication
- Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [1997], ©1997.
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | PS374.P7 A45 1997 | Off-site |
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Details
- Description
- 167 pages; 24 cm
- Summary
- 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.
- Subjects
- American literature > Psychological aspects
- James, William, 1842-1910 > Influence
- American fiction > 19th century > History and criticism
- Psychology in literature
- Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920 > Knowledge > Psychology
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 > Knowledge > Psychology
- Self in literature
- Social psychology and literature > United States > History > 19th century
- Psychological fiction, American > History and criticism
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-163) and index.
- Contents
- 1. Translating the Self: Between Discord and Individualism in American Literary History -- 2. Hawthorne's Drama of the Self: Antebellum Psychology and Sociality -- 3. "But the Past Was Not Dead": Aesthetics, History and, Community in Grandfather's Chair and The Scarlet Letter -- 4. The Altrurian Romances: Evolution and Immigration in Howells's Utopia -- 5. The Ironic Construction of Selfhood: William Jame's Principles of Psychology -- 6. Selfhood, Pragmatism, and Literary Studies: Who Do We Think We Are? And What Do We Think We're Doing?
- ISBN
- 0813119715 (cloth : alk. paper)
- LCCN
- 96016404
- OCLC
- ocm34545353
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries