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American Hieroglyphics
John T. Irwin
其他書名
The Symbol of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics in the American Renaissance
出版Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM, 2016-10-02
主題Literary Criticism / Modern / 19th CenturyLiterary Criticism / American / GeneralLiterary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory
ISBN142142116X9781421421162
URLhttp://books.google.com.hk/books?id=iKUqDQAAQBAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
EBookSAMPLE
註釋How the discovery of the Rosetta Stone led to new ways of thinking about language: “A brilliant new interpretation of major 19th-century American writers.” —J. Hillis Miller

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the subsequent decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics captured the imaginations of nineteenth-century American writers and provided a focal point for their speculations on the relationships between sign, symbol, language, and meaning. Through fresh readings of classic works by Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville, John T. Irwin’s American Hieroglyphics examines the symbolic mode associated with the pictographs.

Irwin demonstrates how American Symbolist literature of the period was motivated by what he calls “hieroglyphic doubling,” the use of pictographic expression as a medium of both expression and interpretation. Along the way, he touches upon a wide range of topics that fascinated people of the day, including the journey to the source of the Nile and ideas about the origin of language.