Writing the Americas, 1480-1826 (Yearbook of English Studies (46) 2016)

The Yearbook of English Studies for 2016 is devoted to writing in English about the Americas. The volume, edited by Robert Lawson-Peebles and Kristin Cook, contains fifteen essays from American, British and European scholars, each one specially commissioned to research the kaleidoscope of writing in English about the Americas. The framework is transnational, comparative and interdisciplinary. The start date, 1480, is taken from the first known reference in England to lands west of Ireland. The closure date, 1826, could be said to mark the end of the revolutionary period in both North and South America. The intervening period contains some of the most interesting and exploratory writing on the American landmass. The volume is organized into three sections. The first, 'Western Approaches', examines records of early encounters with the 'New World'. It includes discussions of early maps; and essays on the myth of Madoc, on King James VI and I, on John Smith, and on Edward Taylor. The second section, 'Writing an Atlantic Culture', concerns the textual history of contact between the inhabitants of Europe and the Americas. This section contains examinations of Unca Eliza Winkfield's The Female American; of the vital role played by printer-booksellers in the Atlantic world; two essays on Benjamin Franklin; and a comparison of Tyler's The Contrast with Sheridan's The School for Scandal. The final section, 'A Diaspora of Literature in English', conveys a sense of the variety and richness of writing about the Continent. One essay sheds new light on the well-known degeneration controversy; another examines novels that use the United States to reflect concerns about British society and politics. There are analyses of two novels about Canada: one which uses a 'Convent novel' to focus on debates between French-Catholic and English-Anglican interests; while the other discusses theories of Scottish migration, introducing a comparison with Australia. The final essay examines how British representations of Spanish America shaped an ideology that was imperial yet domestic. The essays in this collection demonstrate the complex, multifaceted and transient cross-cultural exchanges that existed between Europe and the Americas.