Representative Emersons: Versions of American Identity
In 1903, William James began his address to the Emerson centenary gathering at Concord with a meditation on death and memory: The pathos of death is this, that when the days of one's life are ended, those days that were so crowded with business and felt so heavy in their passing, what remains o...
| Published in: | Religion and American culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
1992
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| In: |
Religion and American culture
Year: 1992, Volume: 2, Issue: 2, Pages: 159-180 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In 1903, William James began his address to the Emerson centenary gathering at Concord with a meditation on death and memory: The pathos of death is this, that when the days of one's life are ended, those days that were so crowded with business and felt so heavy in their passing, what remains of one in memory should usually be so slight a thing…. It is as if the whole of a man's significance had now shrunk into a mere musical note or phrase, suggestive of his singularity—happy are those whose singularity gives a note so clear as to be victorious over the inevitable pity of such a diminution and abridgment. While James's abridgment of Emerson in the address that followed was unusually apt, Emerson has not been as well served by most who have attempted to call his tune. |
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| ISSN: | 1533-8568 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion and American culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1525/rac.1992.2.2.03a00020 |