num_pages: 177
description: 'Refiguring America' is the first book-length study of William Carlos Williams' major prose work about his nation's past, 'In the American Grain'. Williams approaches the writings of the early-comers to the New World as the verbal seed from which our history has sprung, arguing that only by "intelligent investigation" of the original records of the American past can we recognize the defining contours of America. Incorporating writings by the Spanish, French, and English, Williams establishes a debate among voices representing the three main European cultural groups that vied for ascendancy in the New World. Yet Williams' orchestration of these contending voices is performed with a modernist's sense of the fictive nature of all historical knowledge. Voices are quoted, simulated — even invented. Bryce Conrad's 'Refiguring America' treats the complex issues of historical knowledge and verbal representation that are raised by Williams' text, and also accomplishes the most thorough recove
language: English
title: Refiguring America: A Study of William Carlos Williams' in the American Grain
titlecomplete: Refiguring America: A Study of William Carlos Williams' in the American Grain
ratings_count: 1
publisher: University of Illinois Press