Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

This book examines the interdisciplinary foundations of pragmatismfrom a literary perspective, tracing the characters and settings that populatethe narratives of pragmatist thought in Henry James’s work. Cultivated during apostwar era of industrial change and economic growth, pragmatism emerged in thelate nineteenth century as the new shape of American intellectual identity.Charles Peirce, William James, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. were closefriends who founded different branches of pragmatism while writing on a vastarray of topics. Skeptical about philosophy, William James’s brother, Henry,stood at the margins of this group, crafting his own version of pragmatism throughhis novels and short stories. Gregory Phipps argues that James’s fiction weavestogether the varied depictions of individuality, society, experience, and truthfound in the works of Peirce, Holmes, and William James. By doing so, Jamesbrings to narrative life a defining moment in American intellectual andmaterial history.

The Regency Revisited reconfigures Romantic Studies through a neglected timeframe. It demonstrates how politics and culture of the Regency years transformed literature. By co-opting authors, the Regency provoked opposition, and brought new genres and modes of writing to the fore. Key figures are Robert Southey and Leigh Hunt: The Regency Revisited shows their pivotal roles in transforming Romanticism. Austen and Byron also feature as authors who honed their satire in response to Regency culture. Other topics include Blake and popular art, Regency science (Humphry Davy), Moore and parlour songs, Cockney writing and Pierce Egan, and Anna Barbauld and the collecting and exhibiting that was so popular an aspect of Regency London.