Through other continents : American literature across deep time

258 Pages·2006·1.89 MB·English

by  Dimock

Through Other Continents
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Through Other Continents
american literature across deep time
Wai Chee Dimock
princeton university press
princeton and oxford
Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
All Rights Reserved
Second printing, and first paperback printing, 2009
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-691-11450-7
The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition of this book as follows
Dimock, Wai-chee, 1953–
Through other continents : American literature across deep time/Wai Chee Dimock.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-691-11449-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-691-11449-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. American literature—History and criticism. 2. American literature—Foreign
influences. 3. Globalization in literature. 4. Literature, Comparative—American and
Ancient. 5. Literature, Comparative—Ancient and American. 6. Influence (Literary,
artistic, etc.) I. Title.
PS157 .D56 2006
810.9—dc22 2005057723
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
press.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For GD and Beatrice
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction
Planet as Duration and Extension 1
Chapter One
Global Civil Society:
Thoreau on Three Continents 7
Chapter Two
World Religions:
Emerson, Hafiz, Christianity, Islam 23
Chapter Three
The Planetary Dead:
Margaret Fuller, Ancient Egypt, Italian Revolution 52
Chapter Four
Genre as World System:
Epic, Novel, Henry James 73
Chapter Five
Transnational Beauty:
Aesthetics and Treason, Kant and Pound 107
Chapter Six
Nonstandard Time:
Robert Lowell, Latin Translations, Vietnam War 123
Chapter Seven
African, Caribbean, American:
Black English as Creole Tongue 142
Chapter Eight
Ecology across the Pacific:
Coyote in Sanskrit, Monkey in Chinese 166
Notes 197
Index 237
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Illustrations
3-1. Opening of the Mouth Ceremony, Book of the Dead,
Papyrus of Hunefer 60
4-1. Veronese, Family of Darius before Alexander 95
4-2. Tiepolo, Family of Darius 100
4-3. Tiepolo, Family of Darius, detail of Alexander’s face 101
4-4. Tiepolo, Family of Darius, detail of the phalera
of the horse 102
4-5. Tiepolo, Family of Darius, detail of the jar 103
4-6. Marriage of Alexander and Statira, Roman mural,
Pompeii 105
8-1. Hanuman sinking his teeth into the sun 185
8-2. Hanuman encircling Lanka with his tail 187
8-3. Hanuman about to cool his tail in the Ocean 187
8-4. Hanuman with an ornament on his curly tail 188
8-5. Hanuman as a Bodhisattva with a tail 189