Early America and the Modern Imagination

Rewriting the Past in the Present

360 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

Recurring culture war controversies in the US--ranging from reproductive freedom and gender identity to racial inequality and immigration--often turn public attention to early American precedents. At the same time, early American figures and tropes enjoy a stunning cachet in popular culture. Early America and the Modern Imagination squarely interprets the significance and cultural uses of these transhistorical re-imaginings of the early American past. While drawing productively on public memory scholarship, this volume augments its neglect of early American studies. The collection's critical and pedagogical essays investigate how a variety of modalities--including literature, film, television, theatre, video games and graphic novels--rescript early America as a usable past for contemporary audiences. Early America and the Modern Imagination, therefore, interprets early American themes and their present-day echoes to grapple with the evolving and highly contested import of the American nation's past in the present cultural moment.

• Themen: Biographie, Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft Geschichte und Kritik Literaturwissenschaft, allgemein 1600 bis 1800
• ISBN: 9781399536172
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 30.06.2025
• Größe: 234 x 156 mm
• Verlag: Edinburgh University Press
• Herausgegeben von: Patrick M Erben, Rebecca L Harrison