Bergson and American Culture: The Worlds of Willa Cather and Wallace Stevens

by Tom Quirk

Book Overview

Bergsonian "vitalism" challenged the dominance of Spencerian determinism in the early twentieth century and seemed to offer a new foundation for belief in human freedom and individual possibility. Quirk traces the impact of Bergsonism upon the American sensibility and shows how individual writers -- particularly two such different artists as Willa Cather and Wallace Stevens -- appropriated vitalistic notions and made them serve the peculiar requirements...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807897566
• ISBN13: 9780807897560
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"