Scenes of Nature, Signs of Men: Essays on 19th and 20th Century American Literature

287 Pages·1987·28.709 MB·English

by  Tony Tanner

Scenes of nature, signs of men
Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture
Editor
Albert Gelpi, Stanford University
Advisory Board
Nina Baym, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
Sacvan Bcrcovitch, Harvard University
Richard Bridgman, University of California, Berkeley
David Levin, University of Virginia
Joel Porte, Harvard University
Mike Weaver, Oxford University
Other books in the series
Robert Zaller: The Cliffs of Solitude
Peter Conn: The Divided Mind
Patricia Caldwell: The Puritan Conversion Narrative
Stephen Fredman: Poet's Prose
Charles Altieri: Self and Sensibility in Contemporary American Poetry
John McWilliams: Hawthorne, Melville, and the American Character
Barton St. Armand: Emily Dickinson and Her Culture
Mitchell Robert Brcitwieser: Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin
Albert von Frank: The Sacred Game
Beth McKinsey: Niagara Falls
Marjorie PcrlofT: The Dance of the Intellect
Albert Gelpi: Wallace Stevens
Karen Rowe: Saint and Singer
Richard Gray: Writing the South
Lawrence Bucll: New England Literary Culture
Ann Kibbcy: The Interpretation of Material Shapes in Puritanism
Sacvan Bercovitch and Myra Jchlcn: Ideology and Classic American Literatur
Steven Axelrod and Helen Deesc: Robert Lowell
Jerome Loving: Emily Dickinson
Brenda Murphy: American Realism and American Drama
Brook Thomas: Cross-Examinations of Law and Literature
Lynn Keller: Remaking It New
Paul Giles: Han Crane: The Contexts of'The Bridge'
David Wyatt: The Fall into Eden
George Dekker: The American Historical Romance
Lothar Honnighausen: William Faulkner
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The Historical Monument of the American Republic,
by Erastus Salisbury Field, reproduced by permission
of the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts.
Scenes of nature, signs of men
Tony Tanner
King's College, Cambridge
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© Cambridge University Press 1987
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1987
Reprinted 1988
First paperback edition 1989
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Tanner, Tony.
Scenes of nature, signs of men.
Includes index.
1. American literature — 19 th century — History and
criticism. 2. American literature — 20th century —
History and criticism. I. Title.
ps201.t28 1987 810'.9 87-9373
ISBN 978-0-521-32318-5 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-31155-7 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
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In metnoriam Henry Nash Smith
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Published online by Cambridge University Press
Contents
Preface page ix
1 Scenes of nature, signs of men i
2 Notes for a comparison between American and European
Romanticism 25
3 Problems and roles of the American artist as portrayed
by the American novelist 46
4 James on Hawthorne 64
5 The lost America — the despair of Henry Adams and
Mark Twain 79
6 Henry James and Henry Adams 94
7 William Dean Ho wells and A Hazard of New Fortunes 111
8 Stephen Crane 133
9 The Bostonians and the human voice 148
10 Games American writers play:
ceremony, complicity, contestation, and carnival 176
11 Toward an ultimate topography: the work of Joseph
McElroy 206
12 Frames and sentences 238
13 William Gass's barns and bees 248
Index 275
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Published online by Cambridge University Press
Preface
This is a collection of pieces concerning a variety of topics in American
literature. They include essays, introductions, lectures, and a radio talk,
along with some unpublished papers. There is no continuity or binding
theme: they simply represent aspects of my interest in American
literature over some twenty-five years. The earliest (on Henry Adams
and Mark Twain) dates from 1961, while the first and last essays in the
collection (previously unpublished) represent comparatively recent
work. Inevitably, differences in approach and method will be detectable,
and these may reflect changing attitudes to American literature through
the period covered. If anything unites the pieces it is one person's
uninterrupted and ongoing interest and pleasure in the distinguishing
features and singular achievements of American writers and writing.
From this point of view it is at once something of an act of homage and a
small repayment of a debt of gratitude. As my method relies extensively
on allusions and numerous short quotations it seemed undesirable to
burden, lengthen, or interrupt the texts with numerous footnotes. This
may seem unscholarly — indeed it is. I can only say that the pieces are
offered exactly as essays — meditations, interpretations, explorations —
and not as contributions to scholarship.
Thanks are due to the following periodicals and publishers for
permission to reprint material: Journal of American Studies; Modern Age;
London Magazine; TriQuarterly; Salmagundi; Oxford University Press;
the British Academy; Macmillan.
This collection is dedicated to the memory of Henry Nash Smith, who
guided and oversaw my first very faltering steps in the field of American
studies. He did this, as he did everything, with extraordinary patience,
unfailing courtesy, and considerate wisdom. In his scrupulousness,
dedication, disinterested generosity, and humane care he was an
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597695.001 Published online by Cambridge University Press
Preface
exemplary figure and an inspiration — both as man and scholar. My debt
to him is immeasurable as is that of many, many others. He can fairly be
regarded as the father of modern American studies. They could hardly
have had a more benign or responsible one.
TONY TANNER
King's College
Cambridge
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597695.001 Published online by Cambridge University Press