{"product_id":"9780826213464","title":"Transfiguring America: Myth, Ideology and Mourning in Margaret Fuller's Writing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTransfiguring America\u003c\/i\u003e is the product of more than ten years of research and numerous published articles on Margaret Fuller, arguably America's first feminist theorist and one of the most important woman writers in the nineteenth century. Focusing on Fuller's development of a powerful language that paired cultural critique with mythmaking, Steele shows why her writing had such a vital impact on the woman's rights movement and modern conceptions of gender.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis groundbreaking study pays special attention to the ways in which Fuller's feminist consciousness and social theory emerged out of her mourning for herself and others, her dialogue with Emersonian Transcendentalism, and her eclectic reading in occult and mythical sources. \u003ci\u003eTransfiguring America\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book to provide detailed analyses of all of Fuller's major texts, including her mystical \u003ci\u003eDial\u003c\/i\u003e essays, correspondence with Emerson, \u003ci\u003eSummer on the Lakes,\u003c\/i\u003e 1844 poetry, \u003ci\u003eWoman in the Nineteenth Century,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNew York Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e essays written both in New York and Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStarting from her own profound sense of loss as a marginalized woman, Fuller eventually recognized the ways in which the foundational myths of American society, buttressed by conservative religious ideologies, replicated dysfunctional images of manhood and womanhood. With \u003ci\u003eWoman in the Nineteenth Century,\u003c\/i\u003e after exploring the roots of oppression in her essays and poetry, Fuller advanced the cause of woman's rights by conceptualizing a more fluid and equitable model of gender founded upon the mythical reconfiguration of human potential. But as her horizons expanded, Fuller demanded not only political equality for women, but also emotional, intellectual, and spiritual freedom for all victims of social oppression.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy the end of her career, Steele shows, Fuller had blended personal experience and cultural critique into the imaginative reconstruction of American society. Beginning with a fervent belief in personal reform, she ended her career with the apocalyptic conviction that the dominant myths both of selfhood and national identity must be transfigured. Out of the ashes of personal turmoil and political revolution, she looked for the phoenix of a revitalized society founded upon the ideal of political justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Missouri Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47011985883376,"sku":"9780826213464","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780826213464_p0.jpg?v=1763757158","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780826213464","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}