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American Literature Before 1880 by
American Literature Before 1880 attempts to place its subject in the broadest possible international perspective. It begins with Homer looking westward, and ends with Henry James crossing the Atlantic eastwards. In between, the book examines the projection of images of the East onto an as-yet unrecognised West; the cultural consequences of Viking, Colombian, and then English migration to America; the growth and independence of the British American colonies; the key writers of the new Republic; and the development of the culture of the United States before and after the Civil War. It is intended both as an introduction for undergraduates to the richness and variety of American Literature, and as a contribution to the debate about its distinctive nature. The book therefore begins with a lengthy survey of earlier histories of American Literature.
Atlantic Citizens: Nineteenth-Century American Writers at Work in the World by
By looking beyond the page and into the extraordinary lives of Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Grace Greenwood, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller and Frederick Douglass, this book uncovers their startling contributions to transatlantic culture and makes the argument that literature is dependent upon other modes of professional creativity in order to thrive. Leslie Elizabeth Eckel shows how these six figures shaped their careers in the fields of education, journalism, public lecturing and editing in productive relation to their development as imaginative writers. To see Walt Whitman co-producing foreign editions of his work with British poets while exuberantly breaking free from verse strictures on the page, or to witness Margaret Fuller reporting from the battle ground in revolutionary Rome as well as writing her country's first feminist treatise is to comprehend more deeply the ways in which these writers acted in the transatlantic sphere. By practicing Atlantic citizenship, they were able to achieve critical distance from the United States and, paradoxically, to catalyse its ongoing growth.
A Journey Through American Literature by
A vivid snapshot of America's kaleidoscopic literary tradition, A Journey Through American Literature illuminates the authors, works, and events that have shaped our cultural heritage. Kevin J. Hayes charts this history through a series of approachable thematic chapters - Narrative Voice and the Short Story, the Drama of the Everyday, the Great American Novel - that reveal the richness of our literature while providing a compelling set of footholds with which to engage it. Among the topics covered are the role of travel and the symbolism of geography, characters and the importance of voice and dialect, self-definition and the American dream, new beginnings, and the role of memory. Hayes not only discusses the main canonical genres like poetry, drama, and the novel, but also looks at travel writing, autobiography, and frame tales. Key writers like Mark Twain, Ralph Ellison, Emily Dickinson, and Harriet Jacobs are central players in the drama while dozens more create a backdrop that gives this history depth. The book also features over 20 illustrations, a bibliography, and a chronology listing the key events and work in America's literary history.
Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present by
Since America's founding, the diversity of American writers has shaped its literature. Authors and poets of the past have created a colorful collection of works that are still studied today alongside contemporary works. Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present, is designed to continue the preservation of famous American literary works in the minds of college students. Readers will encounter a comprehensive collection of over seventy-five short stories, poems, and novel selections that encompass the distinct writing styles of the writers and eras. The text takes students on an academic journey of American Literature from the period of Late Romanticism to Modernism and the present. Each chapter begins with brief writer bios and includes a concise introduction to the time period and how certain societal, economical, and political factors influenced writers in that era. Featured authors and poets include favorites such as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Flannery O'Conner among many more. This anthology provides an opportunity for students to engage in extensive analysis of American works, both past and present.
Full text eJournals are searchable through the Library Catalog or on the eJournals page.
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Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirteen Bestselling Books by
A surprising history of thirteen of America's most popular reference titles - books that hundreds of millions of Americans have bought and dogeared over the centuries - Americanon explores the strange personalities and social upheaval that led production of the country's common language, customs, and culture. Far from innocuous, America's dictionaries, almanacs, and manuals have shaped its world in profound ways. Spanning 245-years, the books sold tens of millions of copies and set out specific archetypes for the ideal American, from the self-made entrepreneur to the humble farmer.
Literature in the Making: A History of U.S. Literary Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century by
In the eighteenth century, literature meant learned writings; by the twentieth century, literature had come to be identified with imaginative, aesthetically significant works, and academic literary studies had developed special protocols for interpreting and valuing literary texts. Literature in the Making examines what happened in between: how literature came to be more precisely specified and valued; how it was organized into genres, canons, and national traditions; and how it became the basis for departments of modern languages and literatures in research universities. Modern literature, the version of literature familiar today, was an international invention, but it was forged when literary cultures, traditions, and publishing industries were mainly organized nationally. Literature in the Making examines modern literature's coalescence and institutionalization in the United States, considered as an instructive instance of a phenomenon that was going global. Since modern literature initially offered a way to formulate the value of legacy texts by authors such as Homer, Cervantes, and Shakespeare, however, the development of literature and literary culture in the U.S. was fundamentally transnational. Literature in the Making argues that Shakespeare studies, one of the richest tracts of nineteenth-century U.S. literary culture, was a key domain in which literature came to be valued both for fueling modern projects and for safeguarding values and practices that modernity put at risk-a foundational paradox that continues to shape literary studies and literary culture. Bringing together the histories of literature's competing conceptualizations, its print infrastructure, its changing status in higher education, and its life in public culture during the long nineteenth century, Literature in the Making offers a robust account of how and why literature mattered then and matters now. By highlighting the lively collaboration between academics and non-academics that prevailed before the ascendancy of the research university starkly divided experts from amateurs, Literature in the Making also opens new possibilities for envisioning how academics might partner with the reading public.
Mere Reading: The Poetics of Wonder in Modern American Novels by
Named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year Mere Reading argues for a return to the foundations of literary study established nearly a century ago. Following a recent period dominated by symptomatic analyses of fictional texts (new historicist, Marxist, feminist, identity-political), Lee Clark Mitchell joins a burgeoning neo-formalist movement in challenging readers to embrace a rationale for literary criticism that has too long been ignored-a neglect that corresponds, perhaps not coincidentally, to a flight from literature courses themselves. In close readings of six American novels spread over the past century-Willa Cather's The Professor's House, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and The Road, and Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao-Mitchell traces a shifting strain of late modernist innovation that celebrates a species of magic and wonder, of aesthetic "bliss" (as Barthes and Nabokov both coincidentally described the experience) that dumbfounds the reader and compels a reassessment of interpretive assumptions. The novels included here aspire to being read slowly, so that sounds, rhythms, repetitions, rhymes, and other verbal features take on a heightened poetic status-in critic Barbara Johnson's words, "the rigorous perversity and seductiveness of literary language"-thwarting pressures of plot that otherwise push us ineluctably forward. In each chapter, the return to "mere reading" becomes paradoxically a gesture that honors the intractability of fictional texts, their sheer irresolution, indeed the way in which their "literary" status rests on the play of irreconcilables that emerges from the verbal tensions we find ourselves first astonished by, then delighting in.
Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America by
Americans need periodic reminding that they are, to a great extent, people of the book--or, rather, books. In PROMISED LAND, Jay Parini repossesses that vibrant, intellectual heritage by examining the life and times of thirteen books that changed America. Each of the books has been a watershed, gathering intellectual currents already in motion and marking a turn in American life and thought. Their influence remains pervasive, however hidden, and in his essays Jay Parini demonstrates how these books entered American life and altered how we think and act in the world. The thirteen books that changed America: Of Plymouth Plantation - The Federalist Papers - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - The Journals of Lewis and Clark - Walden - Uncle Tom's Cabin - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - The Souls of Black Folk - The Promised Land - How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care - The Feminine Mystique - On the Road
A Research Guide for Undergraduate Students: English and American Literature by
For nearly twenty-five years A Research Guide for Undergraduate Students has helped students avoid the pitfalls of conducting library research for term papers and theses. Updated and revised, the sixth edition shows undergraduates how to use their research time efficiently and how to locate and evaluate material available from electronic databases and the Internet.
Books from the reference section are available for in library use, or are available for online viewing.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language by
The all-new Fourth Edition of the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language offers more information about the language, in a more accessible format, than any other dictionary in its class. And its elegant, inviting design makes it the most handsome reference book on the market. The Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary have added over 10,000 new words and senses. From slang and popular culture to the latest medical, high-tech, and scientific terms, the Fourth Edition's vocabulary has been thoroughly updated to reflect our constantly changing language. Fresh, full-color design. Over 4,000 full-color photographs, drawings, and maps enhance the American Heritage® Dictionary's definitions and make browsing irresistible. Trustworthy usage guidance. The American Heritage® Dictionary has distinguished itself for decades by offering clear and comprehensive usage guidance. Hundreds of new and updated Usage Notes, based on the results of surveys sent to the more than 200 scholars and writers who comprise our Usage Panel, help you make informed decisions about usage questions you face every day. More in-depth note features than any other dictionary. Word Histories, Synonym Paragraphs, and Regional Notes explore the language in a breadth and depth unequaled by any other dictionary. All-new Our Living Language Notes. A fascinating new series of Notes illustrates how social factors such as age and ethnicity influence the way our language is shaped by speakers from all walks of life. Unrivaled biographies and geographies. The American Heritage® Dictionary has long been known for its expansive treatment of biographical and geographical entries. These informative capsule summaries have been thoroughly updated for the Fourth Edition. Two unique Appendixes. Discover the hidden connections between words in the newly expanded Appendix of Indo-European Roots and in the all-new Appendix of Semitic Roots. The American Heritage® Dictionary offers you the most thorough and intriguing view of the history of words to be found in any dictionary.
The HarperCollins Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature by
A classic reference work originally published forty years ago, The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature is an irresistible guide to nearly everything there is to know about American literature. The thousands of entries, contributed by more than 130 scholars, include biographies of novelists, playwrights, poets and critics, summaries of books and plays, descriptions of characters, definitions of literary terms and movements, and much more.
The Oxford Companion to American Literature by
For more than half a century, James D. Hart's The Oxford Companion to American Literature has been an unparalleled guide to America's literary culture, providing one of the finest resources to this country's rich history of great writers.
