This is a study of Thoreau's participation in the economic discourse of his time, when New England and America underwent an unprecedented transformation in economic thinking and behaviour. The first part of the book examines Thoreau's responses to economic and cultural conditions as a literary artist, who identified his writing as his vocation. The second part, which uses Walden as an example, attempts to offer an answer to the question of why and how Thoreau, who
was very much contained by his culture and its conventions, also contested the limitations of those conventions and used his condition to transform them.
This major study brings to light Thoreau's relation to the complex economic discourse of his time and place. Specifically, it examines the impact of transformations in economic thinking and behavior that occurred in antebellum New England and America; these transformations at the level of language; and Thoreau's awareness of these transformations. Neufeldt situates Thoreau in significant economic conditions of his time, investigating how these conditions contained him even as he sought to contain them. Using Walden and "Life without Principle," as main examples, the book considers the questions of why and how Thoreau, who was very much shaped by his culture and its conventions, also contested the limitations of those conventions and used his condition to transform some of them. Thoreau's identity as a literary artist who regarded his writing as his cultural vocation is at the center of the discussion.
A significant contribution to Henry Thoreau scholarship.
