A History of American Literature

A History of American Literature......Page 5
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 13
Imagining Eden......Page 15
Native American Oral Traditions......Page 18
Spanish and French Encounters with America......Page 28
Anglo-American Encounters......Page 35
Writing of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods......Page 41
Puritan narratives......Page 42
Challenges to the Puritan oligarchy......Page 46
Some colonial poetry......Page 50
Enemies within and without......Page 58
Trends toward the secular and resistance......Page 62
Toward the Revolution......Page 74
Alternative voices of Revolution......Page 83
Writing Revolution: Poetry, drama, fiction......Page 89
Making a Nation......Page 102
Myths of an emerging nation......Page 106
The making of Western myth......Page 109
The making of Southern myth......Page 119
Legends of the Old Southwest......Page 123
The Transcendentalists......Page 128
Voices of African-American identity......Page 140
The Making of Many Americas......Page 147
Native American writing......Page 148
Oral culture of the Hispanic Southwest......Page 153
African-American polemic and poetry......Page 155
Abolitionist and pro-slavery writing......Page 159
Abolitionism and feminism......Page 168
African-American writing......Page 175
The emergence of American narratives......Page 185
Women writers and storytellers......Page 204
Spirituals and folk songs......Page 210
American poetic voices......Page 213
Rebuilding a Nation......Page 233
From Adam to outsider......Page 238
Regionalism in the West and Midwest......Page 245
African-American and Native American voices......Page 247
Regionalism in New England......Page 249
Regionalism in the South......Page 253
Capturing the commonplace......Page 269
Capturing the real thing......Page 273
Toward Naturalism......Page 283
Writing by African-American women......Page 295
Writing and the condition of women......Page 298
Things fall apart......Page 304
Voices of resistance......Page 307
Voices of reform......Page 309
The immigrant encounter......Page 313
Changing National Identities......Page 322
The problem of race......Page 334
Building bridges: Women writers......Page 340
Critiques of American provincial life......Page 350
Poetry and the search for form......Page 359
Imagism, Vorticism, and Objectivism......Page 373
Making it new in poetry......Page 381
Making it new in prose......Page 411
Making it new in drama......Page 434
The uses of traditionalism......Page 445
Populism and radicalism......Page 460
Prophetic voices......Page 476
Immigrant writing......Page 480
Native American voices......Page 486
The literature of the New Negro movement and beyond......Page 490
Western, detective, and hardboiled fiction......Page 517
Humorous writing......Page 523
Fiction and popular culture......Page 526
Toward a Transnational Nation......Page 533
From the mythological eye to the lonely “I” in poetry......Page 546
From formalism to freedom in poetry......Page 554
The uses of formalism......Page 562
Confessional poetry......Page 568
New formalists, new confessionals......Page 577
Documentary and dream in prose......Page 582
Contested identities in prose......Page 590
Crossing borders: Some women prose writers......Page 602
Rediscovering the American voice: The Black Mountain writers......Page 613
Restoring the American vision: The San Francisco Renaissance......Page 620
Recreating American rhythms: The beat generation......Page 624
Reinventing the American self: The New York poets......Page 629
Redefining American poetry: The New Formalists......Page 637
Resisting orthodoxy: Dissent and experiment in fiction......Page 645
Defining a new black aesthetic......Page 654
Defining a new black identity in prose......Page 665
Defining a new black identity in drama......Page 677
Telling impossible stories: Recent African-American fiction......Page 682
Confronting the real, stretching the realistic in drama......Page 692
New Journalists and dirty realists......Page 714
Watching nothing: Postmodernity in prose......Page 719
The actuality of words: Postmodern poetry......Page 734
Signs and scenes of crime, science fiction, and fantasy......Page 741
Dreaming history: European immigrant writing......Page 754
Remapping a nation: Chicano/a and Latino/a writing......Page 762
Improvising America: Asian-American writing......Page 777
New and ancient songs: The return of the Native American......Page 793
Writing the crisis in prose......Page 809
Writing the crisis in drama......Page 823
Writing the crisis in poetry......Page 830
Further Reading......Page 843
Index......Page 871