Author Description

"Fragments of Union offers a new approach to comparative literary studies. It is a book about forms of connection: between nations, between literature, between individuals, and between words. It asks how, and why, connections get made and severed, and about the nature of the pieces that remain. Interdisciplinary readings of works by Scots and Americans from David Hume, 'Ossian' and Thomas Jefferson, to Scott and Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson and William James, establish relationships in political, philosophical, cultural and grammatical contexts. Important new discussions of many well-known works, both Scottish and American, help to re-draw the literary map of both countries during the Enlightenment and Romantic periods.". "The book argues that Scottish Enlightenment writings on fragmentation and union established decisively modern forms of thought in Britain and America, and draws particular connections between discussions of the nature of consciousness in Hume and his successors, and the development of Anglo-American psychoanalytic theory. The discussion of forms of 'union' has sharp political and cultural relevance in the new conditions presented by devolved government in Britain."--BOOK JACKET.