Description
Book SynopsisRigorous archival research, careful readings, and long chronologies of genre define this magisterial work, making it an invaluable resource for scholars of American studies, American poetry, and literary history.
Trade ReviewWide-ranging... Through close readings of major and minor writers, and their friends and critics, Phillips argues that the term 'epic' was increasingly applied over many genres and mixes of genres as a subjective signifier of value... Highly recommended. Choice Phillips's Epic in American Culture is an essential polemic for the new direction of epic-centered studies. -- Gregory E. Rutledge Journal of American History A thought-provoking and significant contribution to our understanding of early-American literary culture. -- Kreg Abshire Journal of American Culture Phillips persuasively and eloquently recovers works that have been paid little or no scholarly attention in order to redress an imbalance in American studies, as is the case elsewhere, towards the canon. The Year's Work in English Studies
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Epic Travels
Prologue: Reading Epic
1. Diffusions of Epic Form in Early America
2. Constitutional Epic
3. Epic on Canvas
4. Transcendentalism and the "New" Epic Traditions
5. Tracking Epic through The Leatherstocking Tales
6. Lydia Sigourney and the Indian Epic's Work of Mourning
7. Longfellow's Pantheon
8. Melville's Epic Career
Epilogue: Invisible Epic
Notes
Bibliography
Index
