Common Things

Romance and the Aesthetics of Belonging in Atlantic Modernity

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Aesthetics, Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science
Cover of the book Common Things by James D. Lilley, Fordham University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: James D. Lilley ISBN: 9780823255160
Publisher: Fordham University Press Publication: November 11, 2013
Imprint: American Literatures Initiative Language: English
Author: James D. Lilley
ISBN: 9780823255160
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Publication: November 11, 2013
Imprint: American Literatures Initiative
Language: English

What are the relationships between the books we read and the communities we share? Common Things explores how transatlantic romance revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth century influenced—and were influenced by—emerging modern systems of community.

Drawing on the work of Washington Irving, Henry Mackenzie, Thomas Jefferson, James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Montgomery Bird, and Charles Brockden Brown, the book shows how romance promotes a distinctive aesthetics of belonging—a mode of being in common tied to new qualities of the singular. Each chapter focuses on one of these common things—the stain of race, the “property” of personhood, ruined feelings, the genre of a text, and the event of history—and examines how these peculiar qualities work to sustain the coherence of our modern common places.

In the work of Horace Walpole and Edgar Allan Poe, the book further uncovers an important— and never more timely—alternative aesthetic practice that reimagines community as an open and fugitive process rather than as a collection of common things.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

What are the relationships between the books we read and the communities we share? Common Things explores how transatlantic romance revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth century influenced—and were influenced by—emerging modern systems of community.

Drawing on the work of Washington Irving, Henry Mackenzie, Thomas Jefferson, James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Montgomery Bird, and Charles Brockden Brown, the book shows how romance promotes a distinctive aesthetics of belonging—a mode of being in common tied to new qualities of the singular. Each chapter focuses on one of these common things—the stain of race, the “property” of personhood, ruined feelings, the genre of a text, and the event of history—and examines how these peculiar qualities work to sustain the coherence of our modern common places.

In the work of Horace Walpole and Edgar Allan Poe, the book further uncovers an important— and never more timely—alternative aesthetic practice that reimagines community as an open and fugitive process rather than as a collection of common things.

More books from Fordham University Press

Cover of the book Language, Eros, Being by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Walter Benjamin and Theology by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Delirious Naples by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Google Me by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Tricksters and Cosmopolitans by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Trauma and Transcendence by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book The Rat That Got Away by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Under Representation by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Malicious Objects, Anger Management, and the Question of Modern Literature by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Is Critique Secular? by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Committing the Future to Memory by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Clint Eastwood and Issues of American Masculinity by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Reading Descartes Otherwise by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book A Touch More Rare by James D. Lilley
Cover of the book Goods by James D. Lilley
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy