Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America / Edition 1

by Cathy N. Davidson

Overview

Offering a unique perspective on the origins of American fiction, Cathy N. Davidson focuses not only on the early novels themselves but also on the people who produced, sold, and read them. She demonstrates how, in the aftermath of the American Revolution, the novel found a special place among some of the least privileged citizens of the new republic. Though now mostly forgotten, these early American novels enabled those who bought and read them—especially women and the lower classes—to move into the higher levels of literacy required by a democracy.
Combining rigorous historical methods with contemporary critical theory, Davidson brilliantly reconstructs the complex interplay of politics, ideology, economics, and other social forces that governed the writing, publishing, distribution, and comprehension of these early novels. She assesses the precarious business of the printer, the hardships endured by the traveling book peddler, the shortcomings of early American schools, and the lost lives of such women as Tabitha Tenney and diarist Patty Rogers. By exploring how Americans lived during the Constitutional era, Davidson presents the genesis of American literature in its fullest possible context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195056532
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/27/1988
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	8.98(w) x 5.84(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

Cathy N. Davidson, Professor of English at Michigan State University and Visiting Professor at Princeton University, has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. She is the editor of the Oxford editions of The Coquette and Charlotte Temple.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Expanded Edition
PART ONE
1. Introduction: Toward a History of Texts
2. The Book in the New Republic
3. Ideology and Genre
4. Literacy, Education, and the Reader
PART TWO
5. Commodity and Communication: The First American Novel
6. Privileging the Feme Covert: The Sociology of Sentimental Fiction
7. The Picaresque and the Margins of Political Discourse
8. Early American Gothic: The Limits of Individualism
9. Afterword: Texts as Histories
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the previous edition: "Drawing on recent work in social history, post-structuralist literary theory and feminist studies, [Davidson] argues persuasively that the genesis of American fiction was an integral part of a widespread crisis of authority in early modern America.... A wonderful book."—The Nation

"A fascinating and groundbreaking book."—Philadelphia Inquirer

"Revolution and the Word—sophisticated, comprehensive and imaginative—charts this wilderness birthplace of American fiction and updates our notion of literary criticism in the process.... As remarkable for its methods as for its message."—San Francisco Chronicle

"An engaging combination of information and analysis, Davidson's book on the production and readers of the early novel will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history of the novel, of reading, or of American literature."—Library Journal

From the Publisher