Lonesome: The Spiritual Meanings of American Solitude

224 Pages·1.413 MB·English

by  Kevin Lewis

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‘This is a deeply poetic and focused insight into American religion; not a
historyofitsinstitutionsortheology,butahighlyoriginalexplorationofa
uniquely American sense of the religious through a prolonged meditation
on one word. Through the work of Rudolf Otto, in particular, it links into
the European tradition and its roots in mysticism, but in a manner wholly
shaped by the experience and landscape of the New World. Kevin Lewis
writes as a teacher, long familiar with the poetry, fiction and art of his
country, and composes with a beautiful lyricism of his own that perfectly
reflectsthetextshereadssoprofoundly.Behindhisunder-statednarrative
is a deep learning as well as a form of Romanticism that is embraced by
his conversations with a literary tradition that is allowed to speak in its
own voice and suggest to us a moving sense of the lonesome – not the
lonely – which is a spiritual seeing into the other and into the self. His
book ranges from the greatest of American poetry and art to popular
music, opening up spaces for reflection and new insights to what is often
familiar, but here again new and fresh. Lonesome is a major contribution to
the field of literature and religion and should be widely read by scholars
and by anyone seeking insight into what is particularlyAmerican.’
DavidJasper,ProfessorinLiteratureandTheology,UniversityofGlasgow
‘With a sweeping scope that will work spectacularly in the classroom and
find a welcome reception among scholars of religion and the arts, Kevin
Lewis makes original and important observations about the literature,
music,artandthoughtofleadingfiguresinmodernAmericanhistory.His
bookwillenrichthestudyofAmericanculturebydirectingattentiontoan
overlooked,butwidelypresentmotif.Itbringstothediverseconversation
of American Studies today the theme of lonesomeness, which will be
found at work in modern America as a key feature of its troubled, self-
obsessed, and varied religious and cultural life. White Americans have
long cultivated an ethos of individualism that treasures solitude in a way
that historically marginalized groups have not always enjoyed the
opportunitytopractice,forcedbycircumstancesofoppressiontorelymore
hopefully on the resource of communitarian values. Kevin Lewis offers
readers a robust account of how important solitude has been as a form of
modern spirituality.’
David Morgan, Professor of Religion, Duke University
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LIBRARY OF MODERN RELIGION
Series ISBN: 978 1 84885 244 0
See www.ibtauris.com/LMR for a full list of titles
1. Returning to Religion: 7. The Hindu Erotic:
Why a Secular Age is Haunted Exploring Hinduism and Sexuality
by Faith David Smith
Jonathan Benthall 978 1 84511 361 2

978 1 84511 718 4
8. The Power of Tantra:

Religion, Sexuality and the Politics
2. Knowing the Unknowable:
of South Asian Studies
Science and Religions on God
Hugh B. Urban
and the Universe
978 1 84511 873 0
John Bowker (ed.)

978 1 84511 757 3 9. Jewish Identities in Iran:

Resistance and Conversion to
3. Sufism Today:
Islam and the Baha’i Faith
Heritage and Tradition in
Mehrdad Amanat
the Global Community
978 1 84511 891 4
Catharina Raudvere and Leif
Stenberg (eds) 10. Islamic Reform and Conservatism:
978 1 84511 762 7 Al-Azhar and the Evolution of
Modern Sunni Islam
4. Apocalyptic Islam and Indira Falk Gesink
Iranian Shi’ism 978 1 84511 936 2
Abbas Amanat
11. Muslim Women’s Rituals:
978 1 84511 124 3
Authority and Gender in the

Islamic World
5: Global Pentecostalism:
Catharina Raudvere and
Encounters with Other Religious
Margaret Rausch
Traditions
978 1 84511 643 9
David Westerlund (ed.)

978 1 84511 877 8
12. Lonesome: The Spiritual

Meanings of American Solitude
6. Dying for Faith:
Kevin Lewis
Religiously Motivated Violence
978 1 84885 075 0
in the Contemporary World

Madawi Al-Rasheed and
13. AShort History of Atheism
Marat Shterin (eds) Gavin Hyman
978 1 84511 686 6 978 1 84885 136 8
00c_Lonesome_i-xxii 28/8/09 16:32 Page iii
L O N E S O M E
The Spiritual Meanings of
American Solitude
Kevin Lewis
00c_Lonesome_i-xxii 28/8/09 16:32 Page iv
Published in 2009 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 FifthAvenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 FifthAvenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © 2009 Kevin Lewis
The right of Kevin Lewis to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
PatentsAct 1988.
All rights reserved. This book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Library of Modern Religion, Vol. 12
ISBN: 978 1 84885 075 0
Afull CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
Afull CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Designed and Typeset by 4word Ltd, Bristol, UK
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPIAntony Rowe, Chippenham
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To the memory of our beloved daughter,
Helen Hill (1970–2007)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xiii
1. Foundations 1
2. The Poetic Imagination of Lonesomeness 23
3. Lonesomeness in Fiction and Non-Fiction 51
4. The Numinous and the Transcendent 79
5. Edward Hopper’s Luminist Lonesome 109
6. Country Lonesome 133
7. Epilogue: Therapeutic Lonesomeness 155
Notes 177
Bibliography 191
Index 199
vii
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank Eugene Long, Ben-Ami Shillony, Graham Howes, and
several anonymous readers of earlier drafts, for their considered
suggestions and encouragement as the manuscript evolved.
Special thanks to country music historian Bill Malone for
helpful comments on a draft of Chapter Six exploring signature
lonesomeness in country music.
Also: to the University of South Carolina for granting
sabbatical months in which to concentrate efforts on the project;
and Wolfson College, Cambridge, for productive sabbatical
residencies.
I have been buoyed by receptive audiences at various stages
in the development of the manuscript: at the University of
Glasgow; at Wesleyan College (Macon, GA); at Wolfson; at a
meeting of the South Carolina Academy of Religion; and at a
convivial dinner convened by the Loblollies town-and-gown
society in Columbia, SC.
Thank you, Becky, my anchor and best friend for over thirty
years of marriage, and beautiful Helen, lost but so present
to us.
ix
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LONESOME
I am grateful to my editor, Alex Wright, for light offered at
the end of a long, lonesome tunnel of risky enterprise.
Excerpts from The Dharma Bums and On the Road reprinted by
permission of SLL/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Copyright by
Jack Kerouac. From The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, copyright
(c) 1958 by Jack Kerouac, (c) renewed 1986 by Stella Kerouac and
Jan Kerouac. Used by permission of Penguin, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. From On the Road by Jack Kerouac,
copyright 1955, 1957 by Jack Kerouac, renewed (c) 1983 by Stella
Kerouac, renewed (c) 1985 by Stella and Jan Kerouac. Used by
permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group
(USA) Inc.
“Easter Morning”, from A Coast of Trees by A.R. Ammons.
Copyright (c) 1981 by A.S. Ammons. Used by permission of W.W.
Norton & Company, Inc.
Emily Dickinson’s poetry reprinted by permission of the
publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems
of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed. Cambridge, MA: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright (c) 1951,
1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard
College.
Edward Hopper’s “Morning Sun” (1952, oil on canvas) used by
permission of the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio: Museum
Purchase, Howald Fund 1954.031.
x