Overview
American literary criticism has taken a turn for the worse, Peter Shaw argues. Led chiefly by academics in the service of one or another ideology, critics in the last three decades have systematically raided the great works of 19th-century American literature and virtually robbed them of their deepest meaning. To illustrate, Shaw considers the treatment meted out to five American classics: Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, now reduced to a woman's struggle against an oppressive male orthodoxy; Moby Dick, actually a parable of doomed capitalism; Billy Budd, a reinforcement of senseless authority; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, blind to racism, among other failings; and Henry James's The Bostonians, perhaps an attack on lesbianism but at least a bumbling excuse for a novel. Tracing the evolution of this vein of criticism, and quoting the critics who have brought us to today's warped interpretations, Shaw shows convincingly that these great American books—and their readers—have been robbed of their complex humanity, the stuff that has made them great literature. Recovering American Literature is a clarion call for the restoration of criticism unfettered by ideological blinders.Synopsis
Considering the treatment meted out to the great classics of American literature--by Hawthorne, Melville, Mark Twain, and Henry James--Shaw shows convincingly how they have been systematically raided by academic critics in the service of political correctness, and virtually robbed of their deepest meaning. This book demonstrates that it is possible to read literature and be highly conscious of the political, without descending into the merely ideological. --Dinesh D'Souza
Publishers Weekly
In six lively essays, published previously in the Partisan Review and elsewhere, Shaw, a New York City-based critic, argues for the rescue of canonical American novels from the influence of politically correct university ideologues. Each chapter compares past and present trends in literary criticism in the appraisal of a major 19th-century novel; the novelists include Nathaniel Hawthorne ( The Scarlet Letter ), Mark Twain ( Huckleberry Finn ), Henry James ( The Bostonians ) and Herman Melville ( Moby Dick , Billy Budd , Typee ). Shaw posits that while earlier critics dealt primarily with these books as substantive and meaningful works of literature, critics since the 1960s, using evaluative interpretation, have reduced them to reflections of their own various political agendas. Among his examples of contemporary critical approaches are the reckoning of Hawthorne's character Hester Prynne as a feminist (Shaw particularly indicts feminist critics) and the alleged distortion of Melville's Billy Budd into an argument against the power of the state. Shaw's point of view is somewhat controversial but debate is necessary to the development of all thoughtful alternatives to some of the current theoretical trends. (May)
Editorials
American Enterprise
Incisive, insightful, and never dull...a book that will enlighten and provoke.— Lynne V. Cheney
American Enterprise -
Incisive, insightful, and never dull...a book that will enlighten and provoke.The Public Interest editor
Even those of us who try to keep up with what is happening in American literature will be enlightened and appalled by this superb analysis.Kenneth Silverman
Here, as always, Peter Shaw is combative, provocative, and controversial, but above all rigorous and precise. Softheads and mealymouths, beware.The Washington Post
Bracing.Publishers Weekly -
In six lively essays, published previously in the Partisan Review and elsewhere, Shaw, a New York City-based critic, argues for the rescue of canonical American novels from the influence of politically correct university ideologues. Each chapter compares past and present trends in literary criticism in the appraisal of a major 19th-century novel; the novelists include Nathaniel Hawthorne ( The Scarlet Letter ), Mark Twain ( Huckleberry Finn ), Henry James ( The Bostonians ) and Herman Melville ( Moby Dick , Billy Budd , Typee ). Shaw posits that while earlier critics dealt primarily with these books as substantive and meaningful works of literature, critics since the 1960s, using evaluative interpretation, have reduced them to reflections of their own various political agendas. Among his examples of contemporary critical approaches are the reckoning of Hawthorne's character Hester Prynne as a feminist (Shaw particularly indicts feminist critics) and the alleged distortion of Melville's Billy Budd into an argument against the power of the state. Shaw's point of view is somewhat controversial but debate is necessary to the development of all thoughtful alternatives to some of the current theoretical trends. (May)Library Journal
Examining five famous texts from 19th-century American literature (Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Melville's Moby Dick and Billy Budd, Twain's Huckleberry Finn, and James's The Bostonians), Shaw, a literary critic himself, maintains that in the last 25 years, critics have tended to reduce these texts to political tracts at the expense of their literary integrity. Works of literature essentially become social documents, frequently indicting the society of their authors. Some interpretations, Shaw insists, violate literary common sense: authors supposedly lose control of their materials. As a result, for example, we have Hawthorne unwittingly inviting us to view Hester Prynne as a victim of her morally repressive society. We can reclaim American literature by putting things in perspective, that is, by not ignoring the political implications of texts but not privileging them, either. Shaw's careful study raises important questions about the biases of recent trends in criticism of classic American literature. For informed readers and scholars.-R. David Kent, Lakeland College, Sheboygan, Wis.American Enterprise Institute
Incisive, insightful, and never dull...a book that will enlighten and provoke.— Lynne V. Cheney