American Literature: Studies on Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville and Whitman (Hardcover-2024)

About the Book:

The present book attempts to bring before the reading public an in-depth analysis of the literary scenario of nineteenth-century America, focusing mainly on diverse literary talents—from men of letters like Emerson and Thoreau to novelists like Hawthorne and Melville and the prophetic vision of Whitman. The period, being one of the richest in American history, saw the flowering of a rare breed of Humanism where an all-out attempt was made to understand the egoistic and altruistic motives in man. Transcendentalism was the crowning glory of such an attempt. While the dark pall of Puritanism casts an uneasy shadow over Hawthorne’s fiction, Melville passionately denounced the duplicity of what he referred to as “divine depravity” in fictional terms. Whitman celebrated the word en masse or the “divine average”. Thoreau likewise walked past the Walden Pond with a naturalistic zeal, attempting to come to terms with “nature red in tooth and claw”. The book aims to wade through a bewildering literary maze in an endeavour to highlight not merely the literary figures of the age and their celebrated works but also the reasons behind the flowering of genius. Replete with in-depth critical research, the present book will serve as an ideal reference book on American Literature. Both students and teachers of the subject will find it useful and indispensable alike.

About the Author:

Prof. Sujata Gurudev is the Campus in-Charge at North-Eastern Hill University, Tura Campus. She has done her M.Phil. and Ph.D. from North-Eastern Hill University. Her Ph.D. thesis was titled “The Song of Man”—The Humanistic Perspective in the Writings of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville and Whitman. Her specialisation lies in Modern Fiction Studies and American Literature. Currently, she is engaged in an ongoing project of translation and transcreation of the ‘Nav Ratri’ into freestyle English verse and has done a project investigating Vedic cultures, pan-Asiatic beliefs and indigenous tribes of Northeast India. Her other notable book is The Fiction of D.H. Lawrence.