Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville

by David S. Reynolds

In this landmark work, the seven great writers of the American Renaissance--Emerson, Thoreau, Writman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson--are examined together in their cultural contexts. David Reynolds reveals how these authors broadly assimilated the themes and images of popular culture. Their classic works--among them Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Leaves of Grass, Walden, and the tales of Poe--are given strikingly original reading when viewed against the rich, often startling background of long neglected popular writings of the time.

Reynolds also explores a whole lost world of sensational literature, including grisly novels, openly sold on the street, that combined intense violence with explicit eroticism. He demonstrates as well how common concerns with issues of religion, slavery, and workers' (as well as women's) rights resonate in the major writings.

Genres: History, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction, Biography, American, 19th Century, American History

640 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

David S. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the City University of New York. His works include the award-winning Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, Walt Whitman's America, and John Brown, Abolitionist. He lives on Long Island in New York.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty interesting book about the well-trod territory of the American Renaissance writers, here defined by a big seven: Melville, Emerson, Dickinson, Whitman, Poe, Thoreau, and Hawthorne. Rather than isolated geniuses acting out against the strictures of a conventional god-fearing culture, Reynolds argues convincingly that the American Renaissance writers drew strongly from the popular culture at the time. In particular, he claims, they drew from the “subversive imagination.” This was the late eighties, when “subversive” was a word to swear by in criticism, though it seemed more about subverting literary expectations than anything social or political.

The subversive imagination encompassed new, more emotive methods of preaching, more radical reform movements, and an array of more-or-less scandalous popular literatures from bloody war stories to “city-mysteries” quasi-exposés to outright literary pornography. Reynolds is at his strongest excavating the pop literature of the nineteenth century and such figures as radical writer George Lippard (who apparently wrote the mother of all American city-mysteries about Philadelphia, a work I’d like to look at) and the sailor’s preacher Edward Taylor. The book shows that the major writers were all influenced by this popular culture of grotesquerie, sensationalism, and irrationality to one degree or another (he’s stronger on this with Whitman, Melville, and Poe than with Dickinson and Thoreau, say).

He also argues they transcended the merely subversive to become truly literary. Instead of the hit-you-over-the-head ironies of pastors behaving poorly, you have the introspection of “The Scarlet Letter”; Whitman transfiguring the prurient literature of the day in “Leaves of Grass”; Melville transforming adventure stories into high art and Poe doing the same with sensationalist gothic crime stories, etc etc. Reynolds’ idea seems to that you wash the genre stink off, slap on some capital-T Themes, and you’ve got yourself genuine literature.

On the one hand, I’m an admirer of much of the American Renaissance (Melville, Poe, and Hawthorne- I’ve got little use for Emerson or Thoreau). On the other, this sounds like the kind of artistic hierarchy that leads to praising dullards and shortchanging hardworking genre artists. It also tends to be politically enervating- Reynolds sees Whitman’s and Emerson’s posturing as far more literary, hence worthy, than taking firm sides on something like abolitionism. And Dickinson is to a certain degree shoehorned in with some unsolicited advice for feminist scholarship. Still, agree with it or not, it is the sort of big, toothsome read I enjoy on a topic that interests me. ****’

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent portrait of antebellum American literature as a whole, and an excellent contextualization of its canonical figures.

Reynolds argues that the literary giants of the "American Renaissance" of the 1840s and 1850s -- Emerson, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Melville, Poe, and Whitman -- achieved their greatness by absorbing and adapting various disreputable traditions of American writing. Some scholars have portrayed these authors as rebels against a milquetoast Victorian sensibility. Reynolds, however, shows that they were actually writing for a public that expected to read the surreal, the sensational, the grotesque, the satiric, and the pornographic -- a public that enjoyed even reformist literature on alcohol and prostitution mainly for its blatant salacity. Reynolds calls those trends collectively the "Subversive mode" in American literature, contrasting it with a "Conventional mode" that lost ground quickly after 1820. The literary greats, he writes, found ways to mediate between those modes, incorporating but transcending each. He shows this with a close reading of their work as well as with briefer examinations of the content of contemporary bestselling novels and newspapers.

I would liked to have seen more social and political context. (I think I might characterize the disreputable style as a "subverted" rather than "subversive" mode; it was primarily indicative of a society where nothing seemed sure anymore, not of a desire on the part of the authors to effect change.) However, Reynolds does fantastic work on literary context. This should be the first stop for anyone trying to understand the broader literary marketplace of the antebellum period.

[George Crofts · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book describes the lives of the major American authors of the 19th century and also describes the literary environment in which they developed their style.

in particular penny novels and newspaper articles of the time played to the public’s interest in graphic and violent stories. Many of the authors learned their craft in this environment, and modified this style to create new forms of art.

Also an excellent excellent overview of the people and the cultural currents of the 19th century.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revisiting a classic of American literary criticism which reads as well now as it did when I first encountered it. Reynolds focuses on how the classical American writers reshaped popular culture in works that have usually been approached from a highbrown angle. Concentrating on Melville this time. Reynolds does a beautiful job tracking how Melville realizes a radical democratic vision by riffing on various popular genres. Perfect complement to F.O. Matthiesson's American Renaisance.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

good for historical interpreting. adds a whole lot of context to their stories, back when an artistic revolution was still thought to be possible

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed Reynolds’s observant and often humorous perspective on 19th century American Literature. His commentary positively aided my research on Transcendentalism, individuality, and gave context for the American experience in the time the authors were writing. I also appreciated the unity between authors, schools of thought, and the historical context in regard to future literature.

This book is a great resource for gaining a better understanding of 19th century writing and its place in American history.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but it turns out that when Reynolds says "subversive" he means a very particular thing he has come up with himself, which isn't actually subversive. And I profoundly disagree with his beliefs about the way writers write. So I spent most of this very long book annoyed.

[Michael]

This is a really interesting book. Reynolds says that Emerson, Melville, Whitman, and the others drew upon American popular culture of the time as basis for many of their innovations.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

p. 78

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ]

The first half of this is really good, but for some reason the second half feels like a repetitive snoozefest.