American World Literature: An Introduction

A scholarly review of American world literature from early times to the postmodernist era

American World Literature: An Introduction explores how the subject of American Literature has evolved from a national into a global phenomenon. As the author, Paul Giles – a noted expert on the topic – explains, today American Literature is understood as engaging with the wider world rather than merely with local or national circumstances. The book offers an examination of these changing conceptions of representation in both a critical and an historical context.

The author examines how the perception of American culture has changed significantly over time and how this has been an object of widespread social and political debate. From examples of early American literature to postmodernism, the book charts ways in which the academic subject areas of American Literature and World Literature have converged – and diverged – over the past generations.

Written for students of American literature at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and in all areas of historical specialization, American World Literature offers an authoritative guide to global phenomena of American World literature and how this subject has undergone crucial changes in perception over the past thirty years.

Acknowledgments vi

1 The Theory of American World Literature 1

References 25

2 Early American Literature in the World 30

2.1 Contact Zones and Extended Scales 30

2.2 The Classical Counternarrative 41

2.3 The Early American Novel’s Transatlantic Axis 51

2.4 Thomas Paine and Universal Order 63

References 69

3 National/Global: The Framing of Nineteenth‐Century American Literature 75

3.1 National Agendas and Transnational Dialogues 75

3.2 Slavery’s Global Compass 92

3.3 Planetary Space and Intellectual Distance 113

References 119

4 The Worlds of American Modernism 126

4.1 The American Novel and the Great War 126

4.2 The Esthetics of Contradiction 146

4.3 American Studies and World Literature: The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath 156

References 165

5 Postmodernism, Globalization, and US Literary Culture 171

5.1 The Politics of Postmodernism 171

5.2 Styles of Globalization 176

5.3 Disorientation and Reorientation: Kincaid, Morrison, Kingston 193

References 202

Index 208

“…and what this book tries to do – is elaborating a new procedure, a method to disentangle a complex entity into simpler units which enhance comprehension without giving anything for granted. The pursue of such aim makes American World Literature a particularly rich book, ideal for students with a background in literature and scholars wishing to keep an account of the major historical and critical issues of the subject at hand.” - Serena Demichelis for Iperstoria, Issue 14 – Fall/Winter 2019

Paul Giles is Challis Professor of English at the University of Sydney, Australia. He was previously Professor of American Literature at the University of Oxford, University Lecturer in American Literature at Cambridge, and President of the International American Studies Association.

A Scholarly Review of American World Literature From Early Times to the Postmodernist Era

American World Literature: An Introduction explores how the subject of American Literature has evolved from a national into a global phenomenon. As the author, – a noted expert on the topic – explains, today's American Literature engages with the wider world rather than remaining focused on local circumstances.

The author examines how the perception of American culture has changed significantly over time and how this has become the object of widespread social and political debate. From examples of early American literature to postmodernism, this new text charts the ways in which the academic subject areas of American Literature and World Literature have converged – and diverged – over the past generations.

Written for students of American literature at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and in all areas of historical specialization, American World Literature offers an authoritative guide to the global phenomena of American World literature.