Empowering words : outsiders and authorship in early America / Karen A. Weyler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weyler, Karen A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Revolutionary period, 1775-1783--History and criticism.

Outsiders in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (328 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Standing outside elite or even middling circles, outsiders who were marginalized by limitations on their freedom and their need to labor for a living had a unique grasp on the profoundly social nature of print and its power to influence public opinion. In Empowering Words, Karen A. Weyler explores how outsiders used ephemeral formats such as broadsides, pamphlets, and newspapers to publish poetry, captivity narratives, formal addresses, and other genres with wide appeal in early America. To gain access to print, outsiders collaborated with amanuenses and editors, inserted their stories into po

Contents:

Introduction: Outsider authorship in early America

Mourning New England: Phillis Wheatley and The broadside elegy

An "Englishman under English colours": Briton Hammon, John Marrant, and the fungibility of Christian faith

"Common, plain, every day talk" from "an uncommon quarter": Samson Occom and the language of the execution sermon

Becoming "the American heroine": Deborah Sampson, collaboration, and performance

"To proceed with spirit": Clementina Rind and the Virginia Gazette

When barbers wrote books: mechanic societies and authorship

Conclusion: Uncovering other outsider authors.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780820343259

0820343250

OCLC:

842875113