A History of Western American Literature

The American West is a complex region that has inspired generations of writers and artists. Often portrayed as a quintessential landscape that symbolizes promise and progress for a developing nation, the American West is also a diverse space that has experienced conflicting and competing hopes and expectations. While it is frequently imagined as a place enabling dreams of new beginnings for settler communities, it is likewise home to longstanding Indigenous populations as well as many other ethnic and racial groups who have often produced different visions of the land. This History encompasses the intricacy of Western American literature by exploring myriad genres and cultural movements, from ecocriticism, settler colonial studies, and transnational theory to race, ethnic, gender, and sexuality studies. Written by a host of leading historians and literary critics, this book offers readers insight into the West as a site that sustains canonical and emerging authors alike, and as a region that exceeds national boundaries in addressing long-standing global concerns and developments.

Author: Susan Kollin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 12/11/2015
Pages: 430
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.58lbs
Size: 9.31h x 6.31w x 1.16d
ISBN: 9781107083851

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2016

About the Author
Kollin, Susan: - Susan Kollin is Professor of English at Montana State University, Bozeman, and served as President of the Western Literature Association in 2004. Editor of Postwestern Cultures: Literature, Theory, Space, she is also the author of Nature's State: Imagining Alaska as the Last Frontier.