The Emergence of American Literary Narrative, 1820-1860

Browse Return to Previous Page       Related Subjects All Subjects American Studies Literary Studies Literary Studies MOSTLY Theory

by Jonathan Arac

Harvard University Press

Due/Published October 2005, 288 pages, paper

ISBN 0674018699

In the mid-nineteenth century writers such as Hawthorne and Melville produced works of fiction that even today help define American literature. In this work of innovative literary history, Jonathan Arac explains what made this remarkable creativity possible and what it accomplished. His work also delves into a deep paradox that has haunted American literature: our nation's great works of literary narrative place themselves at a tense distance from our national life.