American Novel to 1870

Description:

The American Revolution and the Civil War bracket roughly eight decades of formative change in a republic created in 1776 by a gesture that was both rhetorical and performative. The subsequent construction of U.S. national identity influenced virtually all art forms, especially prose fiction, until internal conflict disrupted the project of nation-building. This volume reassesses, in an authoritative way, the principal forms and features of the emerging American novel.

subjects: American fiction, history and criticism, 19th century,  Literature and society,  American literature (collections), colonial period, ca. 1600-1775,  National characteristics in literature,  American fiction,  History and criticism,  History,  American literature,  European influences,  National characteristics, American, in literature,  Social conflict in literature