Writing of America

In this lively and provocative study, Geoff Ward puts forward the bold claim that the founding documents of American identity are essentially literary. America was invented, not discovered, and it remains in thrall to the myth of an earthly Paradise. This is ParadiseTM, and American ideology imprisons as it inspires. The Writing of America shows the tension between these forces in a wide range of literary and other texts, from Puritan sermons and the Declaration of Independence, through nineteenth-century classics, to folk and blues lyrics and the popular novel. Alongside his provocative reassessments of canonical writers, Ward offers new material on lost or neglected figures from the world of literature, film and music. His acute and often startling analyses of American literature and culture make this an essential guide to what Lincoln termed the last best hope of earth.

Acknowledgements vi Introduction: Paradise™ 1 1 Maps and Legends 11 2 American Literature and the Body Electric 31 3 Melville: Crises in Representation 67 4 ‘Eden is burning’: Literature of the Popular Imagination 93 5 Going Fishing: Harry Smith, the Anthology of American Folk Music, and the Fan 136 6 Modernism and the Subversive Imagination 158 7 ‘Dedicated to America, whatever that is’: Contemporary Literature and the Egress 188 Afterword: Meditations in an Emergency 213 Notes 215 Select Bibliography 224 Index 230