The Cambridge companion to American travel writing / edited by Alfred Bendixen and Judith Hamera.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bendixen, Alfred.

Hamera, Judith.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Travelers' writings, American--History and criticism.

Travelers' writings, American.

American prose literature--History and criticism.

American prose literature.

National characteristics in literature.

Travel in literature.

Americans--Foreign countries--Historiography.

Americans.

Travel writing--History.

Travel writing.

History.

Americans--Foreign countries.

Historiography.

Physical Description:

ix, 301 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

American travel writing

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Summary:

Travel writing has always been intimately linked with the construction of American identity. These specially commissioned essays examine a wide range of responses to the problems posed by landscapes found both at home and abroad. Throughout, the contributors focus on the role played by travel writing in the definition and formation of national identity, and consider the diverse experiences of canonical and lesser-known writers. This Companion forms an invaluable guide for students approaching this new, important, and exciting subject for the first time.

Contents:

Introduction : New worlds and old lands : the travel book and the construction of American identity / Judith Hamera and Alfred Bendixen

Beginnings : the origins of American travel writing in the pre-revolutionary period / Philip Gould

"Property in the horizon" : landscape and American travel writing / William W. Stowe

New York to Niagara by way of the Hudson and the Erie / Christopher Mulvey

The Mississippi river as site and symbol / Thomas Ruys Smith

The Southwest and travel writing / Martin Padget

American travel books about Europe before the Civil War / Alfred Bendixen

Americans in Europe : Henry James to the present / William Merrill Decker

Americans in the Holy Land, Israel, and Palestine / Hilton Obenzinger

Americans in the larger world : beyond the Pacific coast / Christopher McBride

South of the border : American travel writing in Latin America / Terry Caesar

African American travel literature / Virginia Whatley Smith

American women and travel writing / Susan L. Roberson

Driving that highway to consciousness : late twentieth-century American travel literature / Deborah Paes de Barros.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-288) and index.

ISBN:

9780521861090

0521861098

9780521678315

0521678315

OCLC:

237325205

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description