Description
Book SynopsisExamines the connection between American pragmatism and literary modernism by focusing on the concept of transition as a theme common to both movements. This book illuminates the poetic imperatives of pragmatism by tracing the ways in which Henry James, Gertrude Stein, and Wallace Stevens capture the moment of transition.
Trade Review“Lucid and solidly argued,
The Poetics of Transition will immediately be recognized as an essential and instructive contribution to the now thriving study of pragmatism, especially in its relation to the uses of language in American poetry and fiction.”—Richard Poirier, author of
Poetry and PragmatismTable of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Life, Transition, the Energizing Spirit
Chapter One
Diving Overflowings: Emerson's Pragmatic Idealism
Chapter Two
William James and the Metaphorics of Transition
Chapter Three
The Aesthetics of Pragmatism
Chapter Four
Santaana, Dewey and the Politics of Transition
Chapter Five
Henry James and the Drama of Transition
Chapter Six
Gertrude Stein and the Movement of Words
Chapter Seven
Wallace Stevens and the Pragmatist Imagination
Notes
Index
