Multilingual America : language and the making of American literature / Lawrence Alan Rosenwald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosenwald, Lawrence Alan, 1948- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 156.

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 156

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--History and criticism.

American literature.

Multilingualism and literature--United States.

Multilingualism and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxii, 174 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Throughout its history, America has been the scene of multiple encounters between communities speaking different languages. Literature has long sought to represent these encounters in various ways, from James Fenimore Cooper's frontier fictions to the Jewish-American writers who popularised Yiddish as a highly influential modern vernacular. While other studies have concentrated on isolated parts of this history, Lawrence Rosenwald's book is the first to consider the whole story of linguistic representation in American literature, and to consider as well how multilingual fictions can be translated and incorporated into a national literary history. He uses case studies to analyse the most important kinds of linguistic encounters, such as those between Europeans and Native Americans, those between slaveholders and African slaves, and those between immigrants and American citizens. This ambitious, engaging book is an important contribution to the study of American literature, history and culture.

Contents:

Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and the languages of America

Alfred Mercier, George W. Cable, and Louisiana French Creole

More than an echo, or, English in Yiddish in America

"New language fun," or, on translating multilingual American texts

Towards a history of multilingual American literature.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 160-170) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-20178-0

1-281-90391-4

9786611903916

0-511-43800-1

0-511-48565-4

0-511-43655-6

0-511-43867-2

0-511-43575-4

0-511-43733-1

OCLC:

476202586