The American Epic: Transforming a Genre, 1770 1860

by John P. McWilliams Jr. and John L. Wriglesworth

Book Overview

John McWilliams's 1990 book was the first thorough account of the many attempts to fashion an epic literature (the anxiously anticipated 'American Epic') from a wide range of potentially heroic New World subjects. At the outset, McWilliams considers the many problems - cultural, political and literary' - of adapting Enlightenment views of republican progress to a genre that had traditionally celebrated the greatness of warriors. After a survey of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521373220
• ISBN13: 9780521373227
• Release Date: November 1989
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"