Locating an American romanticism
Emerson, Cavell, 'Experience
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3852283 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Greenham (0000-0001-9632-0620, Nottingham Trent University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 97-110 |
| Publication date | 2003-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative American Studies An International Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1477-5700 • E-ISSN: 1741-2676 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1179/147757003x327284 |
| OpenAlex | W2027929594 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
This article reads Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1844 essay 'Experience' as a work of mourning that gives rise to critical reaction in the romantic tradition to specific philosophical ideas New England had imported from Europe early in the 19th century. The author reads this transatlantic interaction in the wider context of journal entries, arguing that the death of Emerson's son is a test to Emerson's philosophy and his literary form, indeed, the highest challenge, against which the claims of philosophy and literature could only fail. Moreover, it is the failure of his philosophy to contain his son's death, to express it, that makes Emerson's essay romantic. Defining romanticism as incompletion: the impossibility of a total system which would include, for example, the death of the other (Cavell, Lacoue-Labarthe, Nancy, Blanchot). This, the author argues, proposes a 'location' for American romanticism that constitutes an adequate response to Critchley's contention, in his reading of Cavell, that Emerson is not, in fact, romantic
Archaeology · Art · Impossibility · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Romance · Romanticism · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education · Wittgensteinian philosophy and applications
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |