Loose Ends: Closure and Crisis in the American Social TextDuke University Press, 1996 - 374 Seiten In this study of American cultural production from the colonial era to the present, Russell Reising takes up the loose ends of popular American narratives to craft a new theory of narrative closure. In the range of works examined here - from Phillis Wheatley's poetry to Herman Melville's Israel Potter, from Henry James's "The Jolly Corner" to Disney's Dumbo - Reising finds endings that violate all existing theories of closure, and narratives that expose the often unarticulated issues that inspired these texts. Reising suggests that these "nonendings" entirely refocus the narrative structures they appear to conclude, accentuate the narrative stresses and ideological fissures that the texts seem to suppress, and reveal "shadow narratives" that trail alongside the dominant story line. He argues that unless the reader notices the ruptures in the closing moments of these works, the social and historical moments in which the narrative and the reader are embedded will be missed. This reading not only offers new interpretive possibilities, but also uncovers startling affinities between the poetry of Phillis Wheatley and the fiction of Henry James, between Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland and Melville's Israel Potter, and between Emily Dickinson's poem "I Started Early - Took My Dog " and Disney's animated classic. Pursuing the implications of these failed moments of closure, Reising elaborates on topics ranging from the roots of domestic violence and mass murder in early American religious texts to the pornographic imperative of mid-century nature writing, and from James's "descent" into naturalist and feminist fiction to Dumbo's explosive projection of commercial, racial, and political agendas for postwar U.S. culture. General readers interested in American literature as well as students of literary theory will find Loose Ends enlightening and provocative. |
Inhalt
Introduction | 1 |
Wieland Reference History AntiClosure | 25 |
Phillis Wheatleys | 73 |
Herman Melvilles Israel Potter | 117 |
Emily Dickinsons Lost Dog | 187 |
Henry James at the Crossroads | 235 |
The Political Work | 279 |
Coda | 331 |
Notes | 337 |
Works Cited | 355 |
369 | |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
aesthetic African American Alice Staverton ambiguities Ameri American culture angelic train antinomian argues Brown's Brydon Carwin characters circus circus's Clara closure clowns concluding construction critical critique crows Dickinson's poem discourses discussion Disney Disney's dominant Dumbo economic elephants emerge Emerson Emily Dickinson example fact fiction figure film film's final Franklin function gendered Henry James Herman Melville historical human identity ideological imagination Ishmael Israel Potter James's John Paul Jones Jolly Corner labor literary loose ends male Melville Melville's Moby-Dick moments mother Mouse murder narrative nature novel oppression passage perspective Phillis Wheatley poem's poetic political possible potential Puritan racial racist reading reference relationship religious remarks representation represents resonance Revolutionary rhetorical role scene sea's sense sexual significance slave slavery social speaker specific Spike Lee stanza started Early struggle suggest tale tale's thematic tion tive Took my Dog violence virtue vision Wheatley's Wieland woman women