Emerson for the twenty-first century: global perspectives on an American icon

Abstract

Barry Tharaud, ed. Emerson for Twenty-first Century: Global Perspectives on an American Icon. Newark: U Delaware P, 2010. 610 pages. Breaking mold of seeing American within its national context, Barry Tharaud has collected twenty essays that examine Emerson from a transnational point of view. Tharaud observes that essay collection's global approach has recently become more common in literary studies (2). Though majority of writers of collection's essays hail from universities in America, one teaches in Germany while Tharaud teaches in Istanbul, as well as editing and publishing international journal Nineteenth-Century Prose. Tharaud sorts essays in collection into four categories: Emerson, Europe and Beyond; Emerson and Science; Emerson Thinking; and Emerson and Activism. Tharaud's own essay begins collection, concerning Emerson's influence on a variety of writers, especially Paul Bowles. Essays by Stephen L. Tanner and TS. McMillin then discuss Emerson's English Traits (1856) as a transatlantic work. Adding a French element, Wesley T. Mott juxtaposes Emerson's 1845 Boston lectures on 'The Uses of Great Men against portraits of such men that LouisPhilippe commissioned and displayed in Boston. Susan L. Dunston takes Emerson studies beyond Europe, looking at Emerson's relation to Persian poetry from thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Similarly, Steve Adisasmito-Smith broadens Emerson's intellectual context beyond West, to India rather than Persia, and focuses mainly on Emerson's early reading of Hindu works. Adisasmito-Smith points out that Ghandhi regarded Emerson as an influence on him: Did any ideas or images from Indian texts, perhaps transformed, facilitate Ghandhi's appropriation of them? (131). Jan Stievermann ends first section of collection with an essay boldly arguing against labeling Emerson an American writer who bolsters the campaign for a distinctively national culture and literature (165). Instead, Stievermann examines Emerson's use of German romanticism to show that Emerson should be seen as an exemplar of American literature's unparalleled receptivity to traditions from across world (189). Michael P. Branch begins collection's section on science with an examination of Emerson's early natural history lectures, as influenced by scientists such as Kepler, Galileo, Pythagoras, Goethe, and Newton. Branch explains his purpose as largely pedagogical, for he hopes understanding Emerson's early lectures will lead students to better grasp Nature (1836). Branka Arsic moves beyond Branch's study of Emerson and physical science to psychology, discussing Emerson's notions about dreams that were influenced by Novalis. David M. Robinson moves beyond psychology into other social sciences while exploring Emerson's lecture tour in England during 1847-48. During his tour, Emerson was shocked by living conditions of English working class, which caused him to re-examine his ideas (288). Robinson discusses influence of physical scientists Emerson talked with during his tour, such as Owen and Faraday, on Emerson's view of social conditions. Robinson seeks to build a bridge between scholarship on Emerson and science, and recent scholarship on his antislavery writings of 1840s and 1850s (285). In her essay, Laura Dassow Walls handles a related topic, examining specific influence of Faraday on Emerson, for Emerson applies physics to morality regarding slavery and Civil War. The third section of collection, which focuses on Emerson's philosophy, starts with Gayle L. Smith's essay. Smith explores how Emerson's Nature is shaped by its author's European journey, study of science, and personal exploration of nature. …