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Informationen zum Autor Shirley Samuels is Professor of English and American Studies at Cornell University. She is the author of Romances of the Republic (1996) and Facing America: Iconography and the Civil War (2004), and the editor of The Culture of Sentiment (1992). She is also currently the section editor of " American Literature before 1865 " for the Blackwell online www.literature-compass.com. Klappentext This "Companion" presents the current state of criticism in the field of American fiction from the earliest declarations of nationhood to secession and civil war. Draws heavily on historical and cultural contexts in its consideration of American fiction Relates the fiction of the period to conflicts about territory and sovereignty and to issues of gender, race, ethnicity and identity Covers different forms of fiction, including children's literature, sketches, polemical pieces, historical romances, Gothic novels and novels of exploration Considers both canonical and lesser-known authors, including James Fennimore Cooper, Hannah Foster, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville and Harriet Beecher Stowe Treats neglected topics, such as the Western novel, science and the novel, and American fiction in languages other than English Zusammenfassung A Companion to American Fiction 1780--1865 presents the current state of criticism in the field of American fiction from the earliest declarations of nationhood to secession and civil war. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Illustrations viii Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgments xvi Introduction 1 Shirley Samuels PART I Historical and Cultural Contexts 5 1 National Narrative and the Problem of American Nationhood 7 J. Gerald Kennedy 2 Fiction and Democracy 20 Paul Downes 3 Democratic Fictions 31 Sandra M. Gustafson 4 Engendering American Fictions 40 Martha J. Cutter and Caroline F. Levander 5 Race and Ethnicity 52 Robert S. Levine 6 Class 64 Philip Gould 7 Sexualities 75 Valerie Rohy 8 Religion 87 Paul Gutjahr 9 Education and Polemic 97 Stephanie Foote 10 Marriage and Contract 108 Naomi Morgenstern 11 Transatlantic Ventures 119 Wil Verhoeven and Stephen Shapiro 12 Other Languages, Other Americas 131 Kirsten Silva Gruesz PART II Forms of Fiction 145 13 Literary Histories 147 Michael Drexler and Ed White 14 Breeding and Reading: Chesterfieldian Civility in the Early Republic 158 Christopher Lukasik 15 The American Gothic 168 Marianne Noble 16 Sensational Fiction 179 Shelley Streeby 17 Melodrama and American Fiction 191 Lori Merish 18 Delicate Boundaries: Passing and Other ''Crossings'' in Fictionalized Slave Narratives 204 Cherene Sherrard-Johnson 19 Doctors, Bodies, and Fiction 216 Stephanie P. Browner 20 Law and the American Novel 228 Laura H. Korobkin 21 Labor and Fiction 239 Cindy Weinstein 22 Words for Children 249 Carol J. Singley 23 Dime Novels 262 Colin T. Ramsey and Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola 24 Reform and Antebellum Fiction 274 Chris Castiglia PART III Authors, Locations, Purposes 285 25 The Problem of the City 287 Heather Roberts 26 New Landscapes 301 Timothy Sweet 27 The Gothic Meets Sensation: Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, George Lippard, and E. D. E. N. Southworth 314 Dana Luciano 28 Retold Legends: Washington Irving, James Kirke Paulding, and John P...
