Constance Rourke And American Culture

The Career Of Constance Rourke (1885-1941) Is One Of The Richest Examples Of The American Writers Search For A Usable Past. In This First Full-length Study Of Rourke, Joan Shelley Rubin Establishes The Context For Rourkes Defense Of American Culture -- The Controversies That Engaged Her, The Books That Influenced Her Thinking, The Premises That Lay Beneath Her Vocabulary. With The Aid Of Rourkes Unpublished Papers, The Author Explores Her Responses To Issues That Were Compelling For Her Generation Of Intellectuals: The Critique Of America As Materialistic And Provincial; The Demand For Native Traditions In The Arts; The Modern Understanding Of The Nature Of Culture And Myth; And The Question Of A Critics Role In A Democracy.rourkes Writings Demonstrate That America Did Not Suffer, As Van Wyck Brooks And Others Had Maintained, From A Damaging Split Between High-brow And Low-brow But Was Rather A Rich, Unified Culture In Which The Arts Could Thrive.