(1923) by D. H. Lawrence is classified as a work of literary criticism, although it defies accepted norms of critical discourse in its informally agitated style and sweepingly provocative assertions. It belongs just as uneasily to two other genres, as a prose-poem on the epic subjects of American destiny and mythology, and as a series of prophetic sermons on the ills of the American “soul”. It is made up of eleven essays on eight American authors: Benjamin Franklin, Hector St John de Crèvecoeur, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Richard Henry Dana, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman, preceded by an introduction, “The Spirit of Place”. This sounds like a tamely bookish agenda, but the
Studiesis a calculatedly…
2163 words
Citation: Baldick, Chris. "Studies in Classic American Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1850, accessed 21 November 2024.]