Book contents
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
- Nineteenth-Century American Literature in Transition
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Series Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Part I Fractures and Continuities
- Part II Forms and Formats
- Chapter 9 Romance
- Chapter 10 Theater
- Chapter 11 Popular Poetry
- Chapter 12 Sentimentality
- Chapter 13 African American Print Culture
- Chapter 14 Sexuality in Print
- Chapter 15 Seriality
- Chapter 16 Unoriginality
- Part III Authors and Figures
- Index
Chapter 11 - Popular Poetry
from Part II - Forms and Formats
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2022
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
- Nineteenth-Century American Literature in Transition
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Series Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Part I Fractures and Continuities
- Part II Forms and Formats
- Chapter 9 Romance
- Chapter 10 Theater
- Chapter 11 Popular Poetry
- Chapter 12 Sentimentality
- Chapter 13 African American Print Culture
- Chapter 14 Sexuality in Print
- Chapter 15 Seriality
- Chapter 16 Unoriginality
- Part III Authors and Figures
- Index
Summary
This essay walks us through the methodological questions provoked by the popularity of poetry in the antebellum period. It urges scholars to focus less on authorial innovation and critical reception and more on readers and reading, where we find an absolute saturation of poetic enthusiasm and the traces of a transatlantic and commonplace poetic language that has been obscured by the predominance of prose in scholarship on antebellum literature.
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- Chapter
- Information
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860 , pp. 180 - 194Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022