A History of American Literature by Richard Gray -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title page Copyright page Dedication Acknowledgments 1 The First Americans

Imagining Eden Native American Oral Traditions Spanish and French Encounters with America Anglo-American Encounters Writing of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods

Puritan narratives Challenges to the Puritan oligarchy Some colonial poetry Enemies within and without Trends toward the secular and resistance Toward the Revolution Alternative voices of Revolution Writing Revolution: Poetry, drama, fiction

2 Inventing Americas

Making a Nation The Making of American Myths

Myths of an emerging nation The making of Western myth The making of Southern myth Legends of the Old Southwest

The Making of American Selves

The Transcendentalists Voices of African-American identity

The Making of Many Americas

Native American writing Oral culture of the Hispanic Southwest African-American polemic and poetry Abolitionist and pro-slavery writing Abolitionism and feminism African-American writing

The Making of an American Fiction and Poetry

The emergence of American narratives Women writers and storytellers Spirituals and folk songs American poetic voices

3 Reconstructing the Past, Reimagining the Future

Rebuilding a Nation The Development of Literary Regionalism

From Adam to outsider Regionalism in the West and Midwest African-American and Native American voices Regionalism in New England Regionalism in the South

The Development of Literary Realism and Naturalism

Capturing the commonplace Capturing the real thing Toward Naturalism

The Development of Women’s Writing

Writing by African-American women Writing and the condition of women

The Development of Many Americas

Things fall apart Voices of resistance Voices of reform The immigrant encounter

4 Making It New

Changing National Identities Between Victorianism and Modernism

The problem of race Building bridges: Women writers Critiques of American provincial life Poetry and the search for form

The Inventions of Modernism

Imagism, Vorticism, and Objectivism Making it new in poetry Making it new in prose Making it new in drama

Traditionalism, Politics, and Prophecy

The uses of traditionalism Populism and radicalism Prophetic voices

Community and Identity

Immigrant writing Native American voices The literature of the New Negro movement and beyond

Mass Culture and the Writer

Western, detective, and hardboiled fiction Humorous writing Fiction and popular culture

5 Negotiating the American Century

Toward a Transnational Nation Formalists and Confessionals

From the mythological eye to the lonely “I” in poetry From formalism to freedom in poetry The uses of formalism Confessional poetry New formalists, new confessionals

Public and Private Histories

Documentary and dream in prose Contested identities in prose Crossing borders: Some women prose writers

Beats, Prophets, Aesthetes, and New Formalists

Rediscovering the American voice: The Black Mountain writers Restoring the American vision: The San Francisco Renaissance Recreating American rhythms: The beat generation Reinventing the American self: The New York poets Redefining American poetry: The New Formalists Resisting orthodoxy: Dissent and experiment in fiction

The Art and Politics of Race

Defining a new black aesthetic Defining a new black identity in prose Defining a new black identity in drama Telling impossible stories: Recent African-American fiction

Realism and its Discontents

Confronting the real, stretching the realistic in drama New Journalists and dirty realists

Language and Genre

Watching nothing: Postmodernity in prose The actuality of words: Postmodern poetry Signs and scenes of crime, science fiction, and fantasy

Creating New Americas

Dreaming history: European immigrant writing Remapping a nation: Chicano/a and Latino/a writing Improvising America: Asian-American writing New and ancient songs: The return of the Native American

After the Fall: American Literature since 9/11

Writing the crisis in prose Writing the crisis in drama Writing the crisis in poetry