The Sepulchres of the Fathers Revisited

Criticism

Volume 59 | Issue 3 Article 9

2017 The epulchrS es of the Fathers Revisited Sarah Dennis St. Ambrose University, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism

Recommended Citation Dennis, Sarah (2017) "The eS pulchres of the Fathers Revisited," Criticism: Vol. 59 : Iss. 3 , Article 9. Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism/vol59/iss3/9 THE SEPULCHRES In common retellings of the development of the American OF THE FATHERS Renaissance, transcendentalism has REVISITED taken on a “transcendent” quality. Sarah Dennis Rather than relying on continental Romantic discourse and antiquated “Not Altogether Human”: aesthetic standards, it purported to Pantheism and the Dark Nature do something new: in Emerson’s of the American Renaissance by words, to convey an “original 1 Richard Hardack. University relationship to the universe.” of Massachusetts, 2012. Pp. 304. Emerson’s predecessors, namely $29.95 paper. Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, only appear to reinforce the self-directed empowerment that transcendentalism affords. Democratic ideology appears to flourish in Emerson’s calls to self- reliance now, of course, that popu- lar culture has preserved Emerson’s more inspiring natural aphorisms at the expense of the rest of his oeuvre. But as Richard Hardack clarifies in his latest book, “Not Altogether Human”: Pantheism and the Dark Nature of the American Renaissance, “common perceptions of Emerson as a champion of self- reliance misread his understand- ing of ‘self’ and ‘reliance’” (40). As Hardack convincingly argues, Emerson’s transcendental turn emerged from a deeply embedded nexus of cultural tensions, includ- ing debates about the nature of democracy, representation, and the constitution of bodies, exposed through the once-again emerging doctrine of pantheism. In true Emersonian style, Richard Hardack unfolds his intricate argument from this fundamental

Criticism 59.3_07_BM.indd Page 495 05/05/18 2:40 PM 496 Sarah Dennis

premise: transcendentalism is not in Emerson gives him license to the philosophy of self-reliance and explore “the politically uncons interconnection through Nature cious wing of American transcen- that readers frequently interpret dentalism” and to accomplish its it to be (13). Emerson’s connec- “underlying cultural work” (6). tion with Melville, which Hardack Pantheism allows Emerson to con- describes as “parallel and a form figure the world in terms of estab- of call and response” in reference lished racial and gender hierarchies to pantheism, is perhaps a more that reaffirm the authority and salient connection for understand- posit the cohesiveness of white ing the complications of transcen- male identity. dentalism in its historical moment Identifying Leon Chai’s The than Emerson’s other contem- Romantic Foundations of the poraries (11). Hardack roots this American Renaissance (Cornell critique in a change of terms: University Press, 1990) as the pre instead of focusing on outmoded cursor to this reinterpretation, assumptions about transcendental- Hardack embeds his critique in ism, Hardack addresses pantheism, deft archival work that comple- which he defines as: “a distillation ments Chai’s own expansive, of Emersonian transcendentalism transnational archive. Some of that deified a ‘racialized’ nature as the key players in Hardack’s his- universal natural law” (3). Hardack tory of American pantheism, such initially identifies direct references as Goethe, are familiar in light to pantheism in texts by well- of scholarship by Chai, but other known American Renaissance archival discoveries, such as his writers, such as Hawthorne and connection between Jonathan Melville, then moves into a broader Edwards’s influence on Unitarian scope of query, considering panthe- development and, subsequently, istic ideology in a variety of texts the void for pantheism created in produced by well-known authors its wake, promise to shape scholar- for both public and private con- ship on the American Renaissance sumption. The frequency of these in new and dynamic ways (24, 30). references to pantheism is notable; By Hardack’s own admission, few perhaps the most compelling exam- scholars are currently examin- ple of this lack of critical attention ing the impact of pantheism on is addressed in Chapter 1, where American literature, and the book, Hardack discusses Emerson’s at times, feels removed from the early reference to Pan in a draft critical conversation on early and of “Nature,” later edited out to nineteenth-century American lit- read as the term “nature” (54). The erature as a result. But Hardack’s embedded ideology of pantheism book does not presume to be

Criticism 59.3_07_BM.indd Page 496 05/05/18 2:40 PM ON “NOT ALTOGETHER HUMAN” 497

following established lines of criti synthesis”; the subjective must cal inquiry, and his method, though masquerade as a universal truth in very current in terms of its use of order to affect transcendental truth neo-Marxist theory, diverges from (23). Hardack uses Žižek and com- contemporary critical trends in plementary neo-Marxist critics, terms of its exacting focus on close such as Franco Moretti, to unseat reading and its limited scope of the primacy of transcendentalism interest in terms of primary texts. through its historically grounded The argument succeeds because of complement, pantheism. this intense attention to texts like Hardack’s argument takes shape Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) and over four chapters, each dedicated Pierre (1852), Emerson’s essays and to elements of pantheism that bear correspondence, and, to a lesser on Emerson and Melville’s engage- extent, Hawthorne’s The Marble ment with the topic. Chapter 1 lays Faun (1860). Readers get a clear out the history of pantheism in sense of how profoundly embed- the American imaginary, invok- ded pantheism is in the fabric of ing a myriad of print sources that these key texts and how its omni attempted to define and debunk presence reveals social and political pantheism in the nineteenth cen- discord specific to the cultural scene tury. Hardack’s central claim, of transcendentalism. that “pantheism became a surro- Hardack derives his theoreti- gate, subterranean creed for many cal perspective primarily from nineteenth-century writers in the Slavoj Žižek, who becomes key in United States, encompassing less Hardack’s discussion of the com- a theology than a methodology modification and fragmentation of self-representation” (50), fore- of bodies discussed in Chapter 4. grounds the question of what these Žižek offers a method for discuss- authors may have been resisting in ing what Hardack identifies as the their turns to pantheism. Hardack transition to a subject constructed focuses on democratic, scientific, ideologically facilitated by tran- and theological representation scendentalism. For Hardack, tran- in this chapter and meticulously scendentalism is an ideology that charts out the role that pantheism masks the mechanisms of its pro- took on for both its tentative sup- duction and seeks to obscure its porters (for whom “the seductive own temporality in order to divorce god,” to borrow Hardack’s chapter issues of social inequity from the title, helped to effect unity among construction of the white male self. citizens and provide a balm to the In Žižek’s terms, “‘objective real- modern spirit) and its many detrac- ity’ itself is constituted through tors. Hardack’s archive reveals that the subjective act of transcendental pantheism was a contested belief

Criticism 59.3_07_BM.indd Page 497 05/05/18 2:40 PM 498 Sarah Dennis

system that often threw suspicion critics also play a role) in describing upon those who showed too much the racial dynamics of pantheism interest in the rites of Pan, and bred in texts like Billy Budd and The suspicion among those authors who Marble Faun, the discussion belies failed to find desired unity within the wealth of critical discussions a thematic approach to pantheism. of race in early and nineteenth- To this end, Hardack identifies two century America that contributes works of fiction, Hawthorne’s The to the conversation. Hardack’s dis- Marble Faun and Melville’s Pierre, cussion of Native American identi- that demonstrate their authors’ dis- ties as a counterpoint to pantheism’s enchantment with pantheism as reinforcement of hegemonic power their market positions became more also needs further development, tenuous. This connection with the especially in terms of what makes material production of texts and the this instance of Othering distinct proliferation of pantheism among from representations of black select nineteenth-century literary Otherness. The other aspects of circles becomes a salient point in “Not Me” produced in the wake of later chapters as well. pantheistic thought are well con- Chapter 2 purports to catalogue ceived, especially Hardack’s looks all of the ideological elements that at anthropomorphic identity and pantheism came to define itself how modes of transportation, such against, an enormous task that as ships, decenter the perspective results in organizational difficul- of pantheism in Melville between ties, which Hardack acknowledges “ecstatic reverie and dead-wall rev- by stating that the chapter may read erie,” a beautiful turn of phrase. as a discrete collection of points but Overall, however, the chapter needs that it seeks to bring these points to engage further with critical dis- together under the overarching course on race beyond construction logic of pantheism (62). The chap- of racial Otherness. ter achieves its goal with varying Chapters 3 and 4 consider the degrees of success. Most problem- constructedness of pantheism both atic is Hardack’s relatively brief in terms of metaphor and corpo- look at race as a galvanizing point real presence. Chapter 3 focuses for pantheists, who envisioned the on language and representation, aesthetics of pantheism in terms ultimately drawing a poststructural of black femininity as a way to mode of linguistic representation cement white male identity. While into conversation with nineteenth- Hardack does invoke postcolonial century conceptions of American and race theory (through Franz democratic representation. As Fanon and W.E.B. Du Bois pri- Hardack deftly illustrates, “the line marily, though more contemporary between inward and outward—like

Criticism 59.3_07_BM.indd Page 498 05/05/18 2:40 PM ON “NOT ALTOGETHER HUMAN” 499

the line between self and All, parts is predicated upon the usurpation and wholes, figurative and literal— of bodies, all pantheism can do is is eroded by pantheistic thought” echo its opposition in the usurpa- (122), a problem that becomes the tion of voice” (223). undoing of Melville’s Ishmael. ‘Not Altogether Human’ redres Melville’s Ahab ultimately becomes ses a key oversight in American the central point of resistance to literary studies and, in doing so, pantheistic representation; he is a develops a meticulously crafted character “who will merge neither account of pantheism and its rela- with Nature nor with the demo- tionship to American transcen- cratic mass” (148) but still accepts dentalism. Hardack reinvents key the ideological authority of each. American transcendentalist texts Chapter 4 builds from Ahab’s para- for the contemporary generation dox by bringing corporeal pres- of scholars, and his discussions of ence and approaches to whiteness pantheism should inform discus- into focus. This final chapter is the sions of transcendentalism in both magnum opus of the book: it is an literary studies and perhaps studies exhaustive look at the relationship in the visual arts, where revisions between pantheism and the previ- of a luminist philosophy expressed ously discussed thematic areas of through American Renaissance interest (namely, race, natural sci- paintings could benefit from ences, and representation), mate- Hardack’s scholarship. Hardack’s rially manifested, in an expansive work should also inspire further range of primary texts. Fissures conversations about race and rep- in pantheistic thought appear as resentation in terms of nature; pan- wounded limbs, dismembered theism, as Hardack demonstrates, bodies, and missing teeth (181, 89, provides a ready, embedded vocab- 195). The compulsion to manipu- ulary for interested critics. late and mutilate racialized and gendered bodies both reinforces Sarah Dennis is an assistant professor the primacy of pantheistic stratifi- of English at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA. Her research focuses cation and, at times, emphasizes the on representations of the visual arts in irony of pantheism’s compulsion to nineteenth-century American literature. unite through the natural world. What ultimately emerges from this struggle is further solidification of NOTE male camaraderie, or the privilege of bachelorhood evident in a num- 1. Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Complete ber of Melville’s works. Hardack Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature Addresses and Lectures, vol. 1, ed. Edward Waldo ultimately concludes through Emerson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Melville that “if the U.S. economy 1903–1904), 3.

Criticism 59.3_07_BM.indd Page 499 05/05/18 2:40 PM