New World of Words: Redefining Early American Literature

In this brilliant book, William C. Spengemann redefines the genre of early American literature, calling it writings in English that have been influenced by the discovery, exploration, and settlement of the New World. Putting linguistic criteria above national origin he reexamines works by Milton, Franklin, Blake, and Austen, and views them as comparable-and American-writings, all concerned with the displacement of the remembered Old World by an altogether new one. "This brilliantly argued book challenges the most basic assumptions underlying the contemporary study of American literature. It speaks provocatively to all students of literature written in the English language and has significant implications for scholars of other modern literatures as well."-Steven Mailloux, University of California, Irvine "This book promises to create controversy, but controversy of the most useful-and radical-kind."-David Rogers, American Studies