Introduction: A New Digital Tool for Studying Anthologies of Early American Literature, Exploring Anthologies of Early American Literature, sites.wustl.edu/anthologies/

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Van Engen
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Early American Literature ◽  
Digital Tool ◽  
Early American

The Early American Qur'an: Islamic Scripture and US Canon

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Einboden
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Ralph Waldo Emerson ◽  
Edgar Allan Poe ◽  
American Renaissance ◽  
Early American Literature ◽  
Washington Irving ◽  
Early American ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Although considerable scholarly attention has been paid to US Orientalism in the nineteenth century, there remains no targeted study of the formative influence exercised by the Qur'an upon the canon of early American literature. The present paper surveys receptions, adaptations and translations of the Qur'an during the ‘American Renaissance’, identifying the Qur'anic echoes which permeate the seminal works of literary patriarchs such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. Examining the literary and religious tensions raised by antebellum importations of Islamic scripture, the essay interrogates how the aesthetic contours of the Qur'an in particular serve both to attract and obstruct early US readings, mapping the diverse responses to the Muslim sacred generated by American Romantics and Transcendentalists.

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