The Cambridge history of the American novel / general editor: Leonard Cassuto ; associated editors: Clare Virginia Eby and Benjamin Reiss.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cassuto, Leonard, 1960-

Hazel M. Hussong Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Physical Description:

xxvi, 1244 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Summary:

"This ambitious literary history traces the American novel from its emergence in the late eighteenth century to its diverse incarnations in the multi-ethnic, multi-media culture of the present day. In a set of original essays by renowned scholars from all over the world, the volume extends important critical debates and frames new ones. Offering new views of American classics, it also breaks new ground to show the role of popular genres - such as science fiction and mystery novels - in the creation of the literary tradition. One of the original features of this book is the dialogue between the essays, highlighting cross-currents between authors and their works as well as across historical periods. While offering a narrative of the development of the genre, the History reflects the multiple methodologies that have informed readings of the American novel and will change the way scholars and readers think about American literary history"-- Provided by publisher.

"This ambitious literary history traces the American novel from its emergence in the late eighteenth century to its diverse incarnations in the multi-ethnic, multi-media culture of the present. Original essays by internationally renowned scholars present fresh readings of American classics and break new ground to show the role of popular genres - such as science fiction and mystery novels - in the creation of the U.S. literary tradition. In an exciting departure from its predecessors, the essays in this book talk to each other. Their dialogue highlights surprising connections within and across eras. As a collective, interwoven chronicle of the nation's dominant literary genre, The Cambridge History of the American Novel will change the way we think about the history - and the future - of American literature"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1 : Inventing the American novel. Introduction : inventing the American novel / Benjamin Reiss ; Transatlantic currents and the invention of the American novel / Paul Giles ; Susanna Rowson, Hannah Webster Foster, and the seduction novel in the early US / Anna Mae Duane ; Charles Brockden Brown and the novels of the early republic / Bryan Waterman ; The novel in the antebellum book market / Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray ; American land, American landscape, American novels / Timothy Sweet ; Cooper and the idea of the Indian / Sandra M. Gustafson ; The nineteenth-century historical novel / Winfried Fluck ; Hawthorne and the aesthetics of American romance / Jonathan Arac ; Melville and the novel of the sea / Hester Blum ; Religion and the nineteenth-century American novel / Gregory S. Jackson ; Manhood and the early American novel / Milette Shamir ; Sentimentalism / Cindy Weinstein ; Supernatural novels / Elizabeth Young ; Imagining the South / Jennifer Rae Greeson ; Stowe, race, and the antebellum American novel / John Ernest ; The early African American novel / Robert S. Levine

Part 2 : Realism, protest, accommodation. Introduction : realism, protest, accommodation / Clare Virginia Eby ; Realism and radicalism : the school of Howells / Michael A. Elliott ; James, pragmatism, and the realist ideal / Carrie Tirado Bramen ; Theories of the American novel in the age of realism / Lawrence Buell ; The novel in postbellum print culture / Nancy Glazener ; Twain, class, and the Gilded Age / Andrew Lawson ; Dreiser and the city / Jude Davies ; Novels of civic protest / Cecelia Tichi ; Novels of American business, industry, and consumerism / David A. Zimmerman ; New Americans and the immigrant novel / Tim Prchal ; Cather and the regional imagination / Tom Lutz ; Wharton, marriage, and the New Woman / Jennifer L. Fleissner ; The postbellum race novel / Robert F. Reid-Pharr ; The African American novel after Reconstruction / Barbara McCaskill ; The rise of naturalism / Donna Campbell ; Imagining the frontier / Stephanie Le Menager ; Imperialism, Orientalism, and empire / Russ Castronovo ; The hemispheric novel in the post-revolutionary era / Elizabeth Nolan ; Dime novels and the rise of mass-market genres / Shelley Streeby ; Readers and reading groups / Barbara Hochman

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 1182-1203) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Hazel M. Hussong Fund.

ISBN:

0521899079

OCLC:

646576381

Publisher Number:

99945625365