New E. New England beyond criticism: in defense of America's first literature

Wiley Blackwell, 2014. — 332 p.Timely and beautifully written, New England Beyond Criticism provides a passionate defense of the importance of the literature of New England to the American literary canon, and its impact on the development of spirituality, community, and culture in America. An exploration and defense of the prominence of New England's literary tradition within the canon of American literature. Traces the impact of the literature of New England on the development of spirituality, community, and culture in America. Includes in-depth studies of work from authors and poets such as William Bradford, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Henry David Thoreau, Susan Howe, and Marilynne Robinson. Examines the place and impression of New England literature in the nation's intellectual history and the lives of its readersIntroduction: New England Beyond Criticism.
Part I. Excitations: Protestant Ups and Downs
Variety as Religious Experience: Four Case Studies: Dickinson, Edwards, Taylor and Cotton
The Popularity of Doom: From Wigglesworth, Poe and Stowe through the The Da Vinci Code
I Take "no less than skies": Dickinson's Flights
Part II. Congregations: Rites of Assembly
Lost in the Woods Again: Coming Home to Wilderness in Bradford, Thoreau, Frost, and Bishop
Growing Up a Goodman: Hawthorne's Way
"Shall Not Perish from the Earth": The Counting of Souls in Jewett, DuBois, E.A. Robinson and Frost
Disinheriting New England: Robert Lowell's Reformations
Part III. Matriculations: In Academic Terms
Winter at the Corner of Quincy and Harvard: The Brothers James
Upon a Peak in Beinecke: Susan Howe in the Connecticut Valley
Balm for the Prodigal: Marilynne Robinson's Gilead
A Fable For Critics: Autobiographical Epilogue.