ThenineteenthcenturyisoftenviewedasagoldenageofAmericanliterature,ahistoricalmomentwhennationalidentitywasemergentandidealssuchasfreedom,democracy,andindividualagencywerepromising,evenifbeliedinrealitybyviolenceandhypocrisy.Thewritersofthis“AmericanRenaissance“--Thoreau,Fuller,Whitman,Emerson,andDickinson,amongmanyothers--producedabodyofworkthathasbeenbothcelebratedandcontestedbyfollowinggenerations.Asthetwenty-firstcenturyunfoldsinaUnitedStatescharacterizedbydeepdivisions,diminisheddemocracy,anddramatictransformationofidentities,theco-editorsofthissingularbookapproachedadozenNorthAmericanpoets,askingthemtoengagewithtextsbytheirpredecessorsinamannerthatavoidsbothaloofnessfromthepastandtoo-easyelegy.Theresultingessaysdwellprovocativelyontheborderbetweenthelyricalandthescholarly,castingfreshcriticallightonthegoldenageofAmericanliteratureandexploringahandfuloftextsnotcommonlyincludedinitscanon.Apolyvocalcollectionthatreflectsthecomplexityofthecross-temporalencounteritenacts,2119offersare-readingofthe“AmericanRenaissance“andnewpossibilitiesforimaginativecriticalpracticetoday.
