Imagined Empires - Incas, Aztecs, and the New World of American Literature, 1771 1876

A 1999 study of the influence of South American culture on early American culture, in particular literature.

List of contents

Introduction: ancient America in the postcolonial national imaginary; 1. Commencements: pre-Columbian worlds and Philip Freneau's literature of American empire; 2. Diplomacy: Joel Barlow's scripting and subscripting of ancient America; 3. Noctography: Prescott's sketchings of Aztecs and Incas; 4. Mutations: Melville, representation, and South American history; 5. Passage: two rivulets and the obscurity of American maps.

Summary

Imagined Empires investigates the interest early American culture, and especially literature, took in South American civilisations. By exploring the works of Philip Freneau, Joel Barlow, William Prescott, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman, this 1999 book sheds light on national sovereignty, identity, and the development of an American history narrative.

Product details

• Authors: Eric Wertheimer
• Assisted by: Albert Gelpi (Editor), Ross Posnock (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 29.03.2012
• EAN: 9780521622295
• ISBN: 978-0-521-62229-5
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 235 mm x 20 mm
• Weight: 571 g
• Series: Cambridge Studies in American
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies