Emerson on the Soul

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Jonathan Bishop analyzes the relation between Emerson’s doctrine of the soul and his artistic practice. Presenting a schematic exposition of the different faculties which for Emerson are subsumed under the general term “soul,” his study examines the literary techniques—the varied and subtle uses of rhythm, metaphor, and tone—that Emerson employed to mirror and articulate his metaphysical concepts. Emerson’s troubled and precarious creative identity was formed and tempered by his unabating struggle to metamorphose his experience into art; Bishop illuminates the nature and extent of his achievement and its significant contribution to the American humanist tradition.