A01=Geoff Ward
america
american
Author_Geoff Ward
between
bold
Category=DSB
Category=JBCC
Category=NHK
declaration
documents
earthly
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
forces
founding
identity
ideology imprisons
independence
literary
myth
novel
paradise
paradisetm
provocative
puritan
puts
range
sermons
tension
thrall
wide
Product details
- ISBN 9780745626222
- Weight: 372g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 22 Apr 2002
- Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
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.
Geoff Ward is Professor of English at the University of Dundee. His previous publications include Statutes of Liberty: The New York School of Poets, Language Poetry and the American Avant-garde, and (Ed.) The Bloomsbury Guide to Romantic Literature.
