From Library Journal
This book reminds us that the Brooklyn Bridge was designed by a Hegelian architect (John Augustus Roebling) and that a Hegelian philosopher (Henry C. Brokmeyer) was once governor of Missouri. But even those who know that Hegel has long played a role in American thought will find it odd that he should be taken up by literary critics. Hegel himself apologized for the style and language that his ideas forced upon him. Yet Hegelian ideas about literature--filtered through French minds (Derrida, Foucault, Lacan, and Barthes)--can now be found in front-page articles in The New York Times Book Review (see, for instance, the May 5, 1991 edition). In recalling Hegel's American incarnations, this book demystifies his ideas, and librarians may well want it on the shelf as a guide for baffled readers. The first two essays, by Bainard Cowan and Henry Sussman, are especially valuable. Libraries that have New Studies in the Philosophy of Hegel , edited by Warren E. Steinkraus (Holt, 1971. o.p.), may want to refer readers who want a more rounded picture of Hegel to that book.
- Leslie Armour, Univ. of OttawaCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Synopsis
This collection of essays intends to challenge conventional notions of what constitutes an American national literature. The new reading of Hegel in recent philosophy and critical theory subjects history and language to a thorough critique. Yet the connection of Hegel to American discourse has largely gone unexplored, and literary theorists have scarcely begun to interrogate the priorities of Hegelianism implicit in American literary history. The essays collected in "Theorizing American Literature" thus organize their arguments around the necessity to rethink the process of historicizing American literature and to redefine the terms of discussion of some of its most familiar authors.