"We celebrate innovation and experimentation, but Old Style reminds us that nineteenth-century American writers instead valued familiarity and traditionalism, which provided reliable markers of literary quality. Old Style examines the varied uses and expressions of unoriginality…
An aesthetic of unoriginality shaped literary style and reader taste for decades of the nineteenth century. While critics in the twentieth century and beyond have upheld originality and innovation as essential characteristics of literary achievement, they were not features parti…
"We celebrate innovation and experimentation, but Old Style reminds us that nineteenth-century American writers instead valued familiarity and traditionalism, which provided reliable markers of literary quality. Old Style examines the varied uses and expressions of unoriginality…
"We celebrate innovation and experimentation, but Old Style reminds us that nineteenth-century American writers instead valued familiarity and traditionalism, which provided reliable markers of literary quality. Old Style examines the varied uses and expressions of unoriginality…
Presenting an analysis of the American literary history, this work offers important insights into the practices, beliefs, and values that shaped the discipline. It reveals the forces, both inside and outside the academy, that propelled the rise of American literary history and p…