A companion to the literatures of colonial America
By: edited by Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer.
Contributors: Castillo, Susan P., 1948-; Schweitzer, Ivy.
Series: Blackwell companions to literature and culture
Publisher: Blackwell Pub.
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Malden, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 608
ISBN-13: 9781405112918
Subjects: American literature -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- History and criticism.; Imperialism in literature.; Colonies in literature.; United States -- Literatures -- History and criticism.; United States -- Intellectual life -- 18th century.; United States -- Intellectual life -- 17th century.
Description: "Consisting of more than 30 original essays by leading scholars in the field, this Companion provides a broad introduction to Colonial American literatures. The volume situates texts in their various historical and cultural contexts, including colonialism, imperialism, diaspora, and nation formation. In particular, it brings out the comparative, hemispheric, and transatlantic nature of the writing of this period, and highlights the interactions between non-scribal native groups and Europeans that helped to shape early American writing."

"The Companion is divided into four main sections: the opening section on issues and methods covers a wide range of approaches to defining and reading early American writing; the second section, entitled "New World Encounters," considers the interactions between cultural groups during the early centuries of exploration; the third section on identities looks at the development of regional spheres of influence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; while the final section considers major genres and writers of the period in a series of "Cross-Cultural Conversations.""--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.