
Constance Rourke and American Culture
By Joan Shelley RubinThe career of Constance Rourke (1885-1941) is one of the richest examples of the American writer's search for a ""usable past."" In this first full-length study of Rourke, Joan Shelley Rubin establishes the context for Rourke's defense of American culture -- the controversies that engaged her, the books that influenced her thinking, the premises that lay beneath her vocabulary.
With the aid of Rourke's unpublished papers, the author explores her responses to issues that were compelling for her generation of intellectuals: the critique of America as materialistic and provincial; the demand for native traditions in the arts; the modern understanding of the nature of culture and myth; and the question of a critic's role in a democracy.
Rourke's writings demonstrate that America did not suffer, as Van Wyck Brooks and others had maintained, from a damaging split between ""high-brow"" and ""low-brow"" but was rather a rich, unified culture in which the arts could thrive. Her classic American Humor (1931) and her biographies of Lotta Crabtree, Davy Crockett, Audubon, and Charles Sheeler celebrate the American as mythmaker. To foster what she called the ""possession"" of the national heritage, she used an evocative prose style accessible to a wide audience and depicted the frontier in more abstract terms than did other contempoaray scholars. Her commitment to social reform, acquired in her youth and strengthened at Vassar in the Progressive era, informed her sense of the function of criticism and guided her political activites in the 1930s.
Drawing together Rourke's varied discussions of popular heroes, comic lore, literature, and art, Rubin illuminates the delicate balances and sometimes contradictory arguments underlying Rourke's description of America's cultural patterns. She also analyzes the way Rourke's encounters with the ideas of Van Wyck Brooks, Ruth Benedict, Jane Harrison, Bernard DeVoto, and Lewis Mumford shaped her view of America's achievements and possibilities.
Rourke emerges not simply as a follower of Brooks or as a colleague of De Voto, nor even as an antiquarian or folklorist. Rather, she assumes her own unique and proper place -- as a pioneer who, more than anyone else of her day, boldly and eloquently showed Americans that they had the resources necessary for the future of both art and society. By placing Constance Rourke within the framework of a debate about the nature of American culture, the author makes a notable contribution to American intellectual history.
Originally published in 1980.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
show more
Book details
- Hardcover
- 259 pages
- English
- 0807814024
- 9780807814024
About Joan Shelley Rubin
joan shelley rubin was Read More about Joan Shelley Rubin
More Books By Joan Shelley Rubin
People who bought this also bought
Side Hustle : Build a Side Business and Make Extra Money - Without Quitting Your Day Job book by Chris Guillebeau
New Book
Bounce: The Art of Turning Tough Times into Triumph book by Keith McFarland
New Book
The Art of Simple Living: 100 Daily Practices from a Zen Buddhist Monk for a Lifetime of Calm and Joy book by Shunmyo Masuno
New Book
Bittersweet: How to Turn Sorrow Into Creativity, Beauty and Love book by Susan Cain
New Book
Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any Stroke Book by Terry Laughlin
Used Book
Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World book by Jennifer Palmieri
New Book
Fire Under the Snow: Testimony of a Tibetan Prisoner book by Palden Gyatso
New Book
Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0 : Why We Need a Green Revolution--And How It Can Renew America
Used Book
Lord, I Want To Be Whole: The Power Of Prayer And Scripture In Emotional Healing book by Stormie Omartian
New Book
Everything you've always wanted to know about energy, but were too weak to ask
Used Book
The Messenger: The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad book by Tariq Ramadan
New Book
Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Braking Free from Life's Shackles book by Yasmin Mogahed
New Book
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa book by Adam Hochschild
New Book
Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan book by Steve Coll
New Book
How'd You Score That Gig? : A Guide to the Coolest Jobs--And How to Get Them
Used Book
America the Beautiful : Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great book By Ben Carson
Used Book