A Companion to American Literature Intro Table of Contents Volume I Editors Notes on Contributors to Volume I General Introduction Volume I: Origins to 1820 Volume II: 1820 1914 Volume III: 1914 to the Present Arrangement and Contents Acknowledgments Introduction to Volume I Acknowledgments References Chronology: Origins to 1820 1 The Storytellers Universe The Tests of Time Abundance and Expansiveness The Art of Storytelling Gender Culture and Language Diversified The (Practically) Invisible American Literature Constructive Questioning of Our Concepts of Literature Challenging Concepts of Author and Context Disrupting Genre Constructions Upending Spatial and Chronological Organizing Principles Challenging Notions of the Work Done by Literature How Should Indigenous Oral Literature Be Represented and Experienced Scholarship and Literature Impacting Communities Conclusion References Further Reading 2 Cross‐Cultural Encounters in Early American Literatures References Further Reading 3 Settlement Literatures Before and Beyond the Stories of Nations Elements of Discovery Settlement Histories Conclusion References 4 The Puritan Culture of Letters The Puritan Culture of Perception Puritan Spiritual Autobiographies Puritan Sermons Puritan Poetry Puritan Histories References Further Reading 5 Writing the Salem Witch Trials Historical Outline Interpretations The Writings of the Salem Witch Trials Concluding Remarks Acknowledgment References Further Reading 6 Captivity New English Babylon Mary Rowlandson et al. Types of Captivity References Further Reading 7 Africans in Early America Beyond the Common View From the Archival Margins Reading in the Gaps Decentering from the Margins.