From the Publisher
To appreciate how and why America's first best-sellers so gripped the American soul, current readers need to recapture the era's cognitive paradigm. In Beyond Understanding, Dr. Henning introduces us to the nineteenth-century mind, influenced, in large part, by eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, theologian, and rhetorician, George Campbell. Reading feminine fifties works in light of Campbell's faculty psychology helps reveal why this fiction so inspired its original readers; further, acknowledging and reevaluating marginalized reading methods supports an expanding literary canon. Finally, revisiting Campbell's philosophy of rhetoric encourages current lovers of discourse to experience literature and life holistically beyond understanding.
Martha L. Henning's Beyond Understanding is a very smart book. It steps beside literary interpretation to recognize that rhetoric organized nineteenth-century fiction and that women writers knew and deployed rhetorical theory, easily and successfully. Susan Miller, Professor of English, University of Utah
Beyond Understanding puts current readers in touch with the nineteenth-century mind-set in ways that eluded earlier critics. Henning's use of George Campbell's rhetorical theory, which 'urges us to change our minds, enabling us to reread more holistically,' opens up familiar texts to fresh readings and uncovers some previously marginalized literary gems. Lucy Freibert, Professor Emerita, University of Louisville
