Description
Book SynopsisAs early nationalist writers wrestled with the question, they proved how hard a question it is to answer and how great are the dangers in scripting its answers too easily.
Trade ReviewEngaging and intriguing. -- Susan Kurjiaka American Literature This insightful volume complements the numerous critical studies that have shown how U.S. authors before the Civil War wished to create a literature different from European models. Gardner persuasively argues that many writers attempted to invent a national identity by defining 'American' in racial terms. Choice
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface
Chapter 1. The History of White Negroes
Chapter 2. The Prodigal in Chains
Chapter 3. Edgar Huntly's Savage Awakening
Chapter 4. Cooper's Vanishing American Act
Chapter 5. Poe's "Incredible Adventures and Discoveries Still Farther South"
Chapter 6. Douglass and the Rewriting of American Race
Notes
Bibliography
Index
