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The Poetics of Transition examines the connection between American pragmatism & literary modernism by focusing on the concept of transition as a theme common to both movements. Jonathan Levin begins with the Emersonian notion that transition-the movement from one state or condition to another or ...

The Poetics of Transition examines the connection between American pragmatism & literary modernism by focusing on the concept of transition as a theme common to both movements. Jonathan Levin begins with the Emersonian notion that transition-the movement from one state or condition to another or, alternately, the figural enactment of that movement-is infused with power. He then offers a revisionary reading of the pragmatists' view of the permeability of subjective & objective realms & of how American literary modernists stage this permeability in the language & form of their writing. Levin draws on the pragmatist & neopragmatist writings of William James, John Dewey, George Santayana, Richard Rorty, & Cornel West to illuminate the work of modernist literature. In turn, he illuminates the poetic imperatives of pragmatism by tracing the ways in which Henry James, Gertrude Stein, & Wallace Stevens capture the moment of transition-a paradoxical moment that, once it is represented in language or art, requires its own perpetual overcoming. Throughout, he explores how modernist writers, who are masters at recording such "illegible" moments of transition in their poetry & prose, significantly contribute to an expanded understanding of pragmatism & its underlying aesthetics. By linking Emerson with the progressive philosophy of turn-of-the-century pragmatism & the experimentation of American literary modernism, Levin offers new insight into Emerson's lasting influence on later American philosophers, novelists, & poets. The Poetics of Transition will interest scholars & students in the fields of literary criticism, neopragmatism, literary modernism, & American literature.