Emersonian Perfectionism in John Williams’s Butcher’s Crossing

Description

I argue that John Williams’s novel Butcher’s Crossing (1960) can be profitably read as an investigation into the ‘liveability’ of Emersonian Perfectionism, i.e. the version of ‘a dimension or tradition of the moral life that spans the course of Western thought and concerns what used to be called the state of one’s soul’ (Cavell 1990: 2) such as it manifests itself in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. A reading of the novel along these lines provides insight not only into Emerson’s ethical thinking but also issues surrounding the benefits of literature from a perfectionist perspective.

Period	2023 Nov 8
Event title	Högre seminariet i idé- och lärdomshistoria
Event type	Seminar
Location	LundShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International