Transatlantic Literary Studies, 1660–1830

A collection of new essays on the literary influences going backwards and forwards across the ocean.

A lively new volume of original essays in which leading experts address transatlantic literary exchanges in the formative period, 1640–1830, this book uses different approaches to genre to offer both a state-of-the-art snapshot of existing scholarship and a comprehensive introduction to its future possibilities for students and scholars.The recently developed field of transatlantic literary studies has encouraged scholars to move beyond national literatures towards an examination of communications between Britain and the Americas. The true extent and importance of these material and literary exchanges is only just beginning to be discovered. This collection of original essays explores the transatlantic literary imagination during the key period from 1660 to 1830: from the colonization of the Americas to the formative decades following political separation between the nations. Contributions from leading scholars from both sides of the Atlantic bring a variety of approaches and methods to bear on both familiar and undiscovered texts. Revealing how literary genres were borrowed and readapted to a different context, the volume offers an index of the larger literary influences going backwards and forwards across the ocean.