American Elegy The Poetry of Mourning from the Puritans to Whitman

American Elegy reconnects the study of early American poetry to the broadest currents of literary and cultural criticism. Max Cavitch begins by considering eighteenth-century elegists such as Franklin and Bradstreet. He then turns to elegy's adaptations during the Jacksonian age. Devoting unprecedented attention to the early African-American elegy, Cavitch sees in the poems the development of an African-American genealogical imagination.Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Leaving Poetry Behind -- 1. Legacy and Revision in Eighteenth-Century Anglo-American Elegy -- 2. Elegy and the Subject of National Mourning -- 3. Taking Care of the Dead: Custodianship and Opposition in Antebellum Elegy -- 4. Elegy's Child: Waldo Emerson and the Price of Generation -- 5. Mourning of the Disprized: African Americans and Elegy from Wheatley to Lincoln -- 6. Retrievements out of the Night: Whitman and the Future of Elegy -- Afterword: Objects -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- YAmerican Elegy reconnects the study of early American poetry to the broadest currents of literary and cultural criticism. Max Cavitch begins by considering eighteenth-century elegists such as Franklin and Bradstreet. He then turns to elegy's adaptations during the Jacksonian age. Devoting unprecedented attention to the early African-American elegy, Cavitch sees in the poems the development of an African-American genealogical imagination.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries