Richard Ruland

The subject of the history of American Literature is an attractive one. Depending upon one's position, it spans roughly four hundred years, making it more palatable than, say, European or Asian literary history; and it develops rather frenetically within those four centuries, thus making its study relentlessly engaging. The trouble, however, is where to start. As Hector St. Jean de Crèvecoeur wrote in 1782, "What is an American?" Can we rightly group John Smith (who wrote the first romance on American soil) or even Thomas Paine (whose pamphlet Common Sense was the death knell for American independence) in with the annals of American literature? Or does truly American literature start much later with the phenomenal autobiography of Boston-born polymath Benjamin Franklin? The answer probably depends on national sentiment, and this is where a history co-authored on opposing sides of the Atlantic stands out from the pile. Indeed, the preface and first section, "The Literature of British America," assure the reader that the authors are well aware of the difficulties of circumscribing the borders of such a history and proceed to pinpoint the figures and texts crucial to the development of America's national literature. While the prose is more shrewd than colloquial, the authors exhibit a fine command of their subject as they move from Puritanism (with its travelogues, letters, tracts, commonplace books, and sermons) to the Indian-capture narratives that dazzled so many Europeans intrigued with the mysteries of the New World's indigenous people (i.e. real Americans, whose lore will be explored later in the text) to the political writings that stirred the dust of revolution and on through postbellum and postmodern literature. A perusal of the index reveals all of the expected names and movements up to the 1980s (the book was published in 1991), and the ratio of material from half-century to half-century is well-balanced. And though this is more of a survey than a critical text, it is not devoid of critical commentary. Readers who are looking to reinforce knowledge, get an introduction to the history of American literature, or compile lists of authors and books they might have missed will find this book to fit the bill.… (más)

Reasonably well written, pretty good attempt to be neutral (when they're critical, it comes in the form of 'while [e.g., Ashberry] cannot be accused of solipsism, his/her followers have often descended into it,' which is presumably a nice way of saying, for instance, Ashberry is a naval-gazing nincompoop, but we're too well mannered to shock you by saying that. Quite comprehensive, too, although a lot has happened in the last 20 years, so it's slightly out of date, both re: literature (no Asian Am, no Chican/Latino-a) and history. It's cute that they think cryogenics has really done major things to our civilization.

Two major flaws: the chapters have uninformative titles, and are divided only by roman numerals, although the sections are usually quite coherent- post-war poetry, for instance, gets a section, but it's numbered rather than being called post-war poetry. Makes it tough to find things sometimes. More irritatingly, there are no references- none. And no bibliography. Thanks to the wonders of the world wide inter-google, you can usually track down the references, but it's really annoying when you're just sitting on the couch reading.… (más)