The Romance of Desire : Emerson's Commitment to Incompletion

The relationship between Ralph Waldo Emerson's work and two major contemporary critical movements -- feminism and antifoundationalism -- as a romance marked with desire and incompletion is discussed in The Romance of Desire.

Field argues that feminism and antifoundationalism, though significantly divergent, share important roots in Emerson's work and shed light on his arguments in Nature and "Circles." This book suggests a new and productive role for Emerson in contemporary American life and thought.