American Literature in Context to 1865

American Literature in Context to 1865 is the perfect companion for readers who want to familiarize themselves with the historical events and literary movements that shaped American literature from the pre–Columbian period to the end of the Civil War.

Situating literary texts in their historical context, from indigenous texts to sermons, slave narratives, political tracts, novels, essays on abolition and women s rights, stories of the early frontier to poetry, Susan Castillo conveys the splendid untidiness and exuberant vitality of American literature, and the ways in which many different voices with different agendas have clamored to be heard.

Includes a transatlantic timeline, featuring key literary works and historical events, as well as suggestions for further reading.  

Preface viii

Acknowledgments ix

Timeline of Texts and Historical Events x

The Arrival of the Europeans 1

European Exploration and Settlement: The Anvil and the Golden Fleece 17

The City on a Hill: Alternative Visions 32

From Colonies to Nation 61

The Struggle for Identity in Post–Revolutionary America 80

American Expansion and the Transcendentalists 98

The Originals: Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman 124

A House Divided: Abolitionism, the Women s Movement, and the Civil War 146

Bibliography 171

Index 180

Susan Castillo is Harriet Beecher Stowe Professor of American Studies at King s College London and has published extensively on colonial writing of the Early Americas, Native American writing, and on the U.S. South. Her books include The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology (Wiley–Blackwell, 2001), A Companion to the Literatures of Colonial America (Wiley–Blackwell, 2005), Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500–1786: Performing America (2005) and American Travel Writing and Empire (2009).  

"Joining numerous other volumes in the "Literature in Context" series, this is an excellent starting point for students of American literature. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower–and upper–division undergraduates; general readers." (Choice, 1 August 2011)

"The book includes a transatlantic timeline featuring key literary works and historical events, in addition to suggestions for further reading and a few b&w art illustrations." (Booknews, 1 April 2011)

"In the end this book is an innovative soul within a traditional body.  It presents the historical context of American writing from a variety of perspectives within a period structure relevant to many current college courses." (NBOL–19, October 2010)