American Literature Before 1880.

American Literature Before1880

offers a new approach to earlier American Literature and a fresh interpretation of some of its major writers. It does so by placing its subject in the broadest possible international perspective, beginning with Homer looking westward, and ending with Henry James crossing the Atlantic eastwards. The theme of the book is that the Europeans imagined America long before they found it; and that when people began to write in America, their work existed in a dynamic, questioning relation with European writing. The book begins by analysing earlier histories of American literature, and then goes on to examine:

• The theme of the epic, the imagery of the pastoral and the myth of Atlantis
• The projection of images of the East onto an as-yet unrecognised West
• The literary and cultural consequences of Viking, Columbian, and then English migration to America
• The role of the arts and the key writers of the new Republic
• The development of the culture of the United States between the War of 1812 and the Civil War
• The consequences of the Civil War.

The book ends by sketching some themes that would be developed by American writers after 1880. It also contains brief biographies and bibliographies of key authors, and provides a welcome survey and analysis of the richness, variety and longevity of American literature.

Robert Lawson-Peebles was until recently Associate Dean of Academic Partnerships at Exeter University, and is now a Senior Lecturer in its School of English.