A New World of Words: Redefining Early American Literature

Early American literature has traditionally been defined as writings in English by future residents of the land that became the United States. Thanks to this definition, it has only a modest reputation: "early" has come to mean "less"—less American and less literary than American literature proper. In this book, William C. Spengemann redefines early American literature, calling it writings in English that reflect or have been influenced by the discovery, exploration, and settlement of the N...