Desire, the self, the social critic
Subtitle: the rise of queer performance within the demise of transcendentalism
By: J.F. Buckley.
Publisher: Susquehanna University Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Selinsgrove, PA; London; Cranbury, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 151
Subjects: Fuller, Margaret, 1810-1850 -- Political and social views.; Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886 -- Political and social views.; Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 -- Political and social views.; Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 -- Political and social views.; American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Homosexuality and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; Transcendentalism (New England); Desire in literature.; Self in literature.
Description: In Desire, the Self, the Social Critic, Professor Buckley shows that while few transcendentalists ever agree for long on philosophical or epistemological matters, four of them develop the use of "antisocial" desire into a transcendental critique of nineteenth-century American culture.

Margaret Fuller, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson represent the individual's inherent divinity and the individual's inherent ability to transcend the exigencies of the sensate world in terms that might appear to be homosexual, bisexual, or "pansexual." They alone among their contemporaries give expression to desire for the social other, give expression to desire for the self not to be seen in the heterosexist, homophobic, misogynist social realm of everyday life.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 142-147) and index.