- •Contents
- •Preface and Acknowledgements
- •Imagining Eden
- •Native American Oral Traditions
- •Spanish and French Encounters with America
- •Anglo-American Encounters
- •Writing of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods
- •Making a Nation
- •The Making of American Myths
- •The Making of American Selves
- •The Making of Many Americas
- •The Making of an American Fiction and Poetry
- •Rebuilding a Nation
- •The Development of Literary Regionalisms
- •The Development of Literary Realism and Naturalism
- •The Development of Women’s Writing
- •The Development of Many Americas
- •Changing National Identities
- •Between Victorianism and Modernism
- •The Inventions of Modernism
- •Traditionalism, Politics and Prophecy
- •Community and Identity
- •Mass Culture and the Writer
- •Towards a Transnational Nation
- •Formalists and Confessionals
- •Public and Private Histories
- •Beats, Prophets and Aesthetes
- •The Art and Politics of Race
- •Realism and its Discontents
- •Language and Genre
- •Creating New Americas
- •Further Reading
- •Index
A HISTORY OF
americanliterature
To
Sheona
A HISTORY OF
americanliterature
RICHARD GRAY
Copyright © 2004 by Richard Gray
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA
108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK
550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia
The right of Richard Gray to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
First published 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gray, Richard J.
A history of American literature / Richard Gray. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-22134-4 (alk. paper) – ISBN 0-631-22135-2 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. American literature–History and criticism. 2. United States–Literatures–
History and criticism. I. Title. |
|
PS88.G73 2003 |
|
810.9–dc21 |
2003004958 |
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
Set in 10.5/13pt Minion
by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
For further information on
Blackwell Publishing, visit our website:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com
contents
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
1 The First Americans: American Literature Before and |
|
During the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods |
1 |
Imagining Eden |
1 |
Native American Oral Traditions |
4 |
Spanish and French Encounters with America |
18 |
Anglo-American Encounters |
25 |
Writing of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods |
32 |
Puritan narratives |
32 |
Challenges to the Puritan oligarchy |
36 |
Some Colonial poetry |
41 |
Enemies within and without |
49 |
Trends towards the secular and resistance |
55 |
Towards the Revolution |
68 |
Alternative voices of Revolution |
79 |
Writing Revolution: Poetry, drama, fiction |
86 |
2 Inventing Americas: The Making of American |
|
Literature, 1800–1865 |
100 |
Making a Nation |
100 |
The Making of American Myths |
105 |
Myths of an emerging nation |
105 |
The making of Western myth |
107 |
The making of Southern myth |
118 |
Legends of the Old Southwest |
124 |
The Making of American Selves |
130 |
The Transcendentalists |
130 |
|
|
Contents |
v |
Voices of African American identity |
144 |
The Making of Many Americas |
151 |
Native American writing |
152 |
Oral culture of the Hispanic Southwest |
158 |
African American polemic and poetry |
160 |
Abolitionist and pro-slavery writing |
164 |
Abolitionism and feminism |
174 |
African American writing |
182 |
The Making of an American Fiction and Poetry |
194 |
The emergence of American narratives |
194 |
Women writers and storytellers |
214 |
Spirituals and folk songs |
220 |
American poetic voices |
224 |
3 Reconstructing the Past, Reimagining the Future: The |
|
Development of American Literature, 1865–1900 |
245 |
Rebuilding a Nation |
245 |
The Development of Literary Regionalisms |
250 |
From Adam to outsider |
250 |
Regionalism in the West and Midwest |
258 |
African American and Native American voices |
259 |
Regionalism in New England |
261 |
Regionalism in the South |
265 |
The Development of Literary Realism and Naturalism |
282 |
Capturing the commonplace |
282 |
Capturing the real thing |
286 |
Towards naturalism |
296 |
The Development of Women’s Writing |
309 |
Writing by African American women |
309 |
Writing and the condition of women |
312 |
The Development of Many Americas |
318 |
Things fall apart |
318 |
Voices of resistance |
321 |
Voices of reform |
323 |
The immigrant encounter |
327 |
4 Making it New: The Emergence of Modern American |
|
Literature, 1900–1945 |
336 |
Changing National Identities |
336 |
Between Victorianism and Modernism |
348 |
The problem of race |
348 |
Building bridges: Women writers |
355 |
Critiques of American provincial life |
364 |
|
|
vi |
Contents |
Poetry and the search for form |
373 |
The Inventions of Modernism |
388 |
Imagism, Vorticism and Objectivism |
388 |
Making it new in poetry |
397 |
Making it new in prose |
429 |
Making it new in drama |
453 |
Traditionalism, Politics and Prophecy |
463 |
The uses of traditionalism |
463 |
Populism and radicalism |
478 |
Prophetic voices |
495 |
Community and Identity |
499 |
Immigrant writing |
499 |
Native American voices |
505 |
The literature of the New Negro movement and beyond |
509 |
Mass Culture and the Writer |
537 |
Western, detective and hardboiled fiction |
537 |
Humorous writing |
544 |
Fiction and popular culture |
546 |
5 Negotiating the American Century: American |
|
Literature since 1945 |
553 |
Towards a Transnational Nation |
553 |
Formalists and Confessionals |
564 |
From the mythological eye to the lonely ‘I’ in poetry |
564 |
From formalism to freedom in poetry |
573 |
The uses of formalism |
581 |
Confessional poetry |
587 |
New formalists, new confessionals |
596 |
Public and Private Histories |
600 |
Documentary and dream in prose |
600 |
Contested identities in prose |
608 |
Crossing borders: Some women prose writers |
619 |
Beats, Prophets and Aesthetes |
629 |
Rediscovering the American voice: The Black Mountain writers |
629 |
Restoring the American vision: The San Francisco renaissance |
637 |
Recreating American rhythms: The beat generation |
641 |
Reinventing the American self: The New York poets |
645 |
Resisting orthodoxy: Dissent and experiment in fiction |
654 |
The Art and Politics of Race |
663 |
Defining a new black aesthetic |
663 |
Defining a new black identity in prose |
674 |
Defining a new black identity in drama |
686 |
Telling impossible stories: Recent African American fiction |
691 |
|
|
Contents |
vii |
Realism and its Discontents |
701 |
Confronting the real, stretching the realistic in drama |
701 |
New Journalists and dirty realists |
723 |
Language and Genre |
728 |
Watching nothing: Postmodernity in prose |
728 |
The actuality of words: Postmodern poetry |
742 |
Signs and scenes of crime, science fiction and fantasy |
749 |
Creating New Americas |
762 |
Dreaming history: European immigrant writing |
762 |
Remapping a nation: Chicano/a and Latino/a writing |
771 |
Improvising America: Asian American writing |
786 |
New and ancient songs: The return of the Native American |
802 |
Further Reading |
818 |
Index |
845 |
viii |
Contents |