Useful introductory works:

Norton Anthology of American Literature, 4th ed. Vol. I
Louis Leary. American Literature: A study and Research Guide. 1976,
James D Hart, Oxford Companion to American Literature, 5th ed. 1983.
James Woodress, ed. Eight American Authors, rev 1971
American Literary Scholarship: an annual, 1965--
Literary History of the United States, 1948, biblio rev 1974
Joel Myerson, ed. The Transcendentalists, 1984
Stephen Greenblatt and Giles Gunn, eds. Redrawing the Boundaries, 1992
James L Harner, Literary Research Guide. 2nd ed. 1993.
Jack Salzman, Cambridge Handbook of American Literature. 1986.

A. Significant Intepretations:

1. 19th c. view of Schoolroom poets or fireside authors:
Longfellow, Holmes, Bryant, Whittier, Lowell
Howells as typical American novelist

2. Modernist reinvention of American literature:
D. H. Lawrence 1923: Studies in Classic American Literature. primitivism of American imagination, reaction against British and European establishment: Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, Whitman, Poe
Melville revival of 1920s; Anthologies of American Literature


3. Political and intellectual contexts:
V. L. Parrington: 1930. Main Currents in American Thought. expression of
Jeffersonian political liberalism, triumph of French radical thought over English conservatism.
Perry Miller, The New England Mind, 1939, 1953
Perry Miller, The Raven and the Whale, 1956
Alfred Kazin. 1942. On Native Grounds. Realism and naturalism
A M Schlesinger Jr. 1944. The Age of Jackson. Jacksonian egalitarianism, geographical expansion,
Marius Bewley. 1947. Complex Fate. Writing both to European and American standards


4. The organic principle:

F. O. Matthiessen. 1941. American Renaissance. Organic principle in British/German romanticism. Coleridge. Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Hawthorne, Melville. (not Poe)
Harry Levin, The Power of Blackness, 1958
Brooks and Warren anthologies: the New Criticism


5. The myth of a American essence:

Richard Chase. 1950. The American Novel and Its Tradition. romance
Charles Fiedelson. Symbolism and American Literature
Henry Nash Smith. Virgin Land
R W B Lewis, American Adam
Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden
Roy Harvey Pearce, The Continuity of American Poetry (1961)
Hyatt H. Waggoner, American Poets from the Puritans to the Present (1968)
Irving Howe, The American Newness, 1985



6. The dissenting 60s and 1970s:

Gender studies, feminism
Leslie Fiedler, Love and Death in the American Novel, 1961
Lawrence Buell, Literary Transcendentalism (1973)
Ann Douglas, The Feminization of American Culture, 1977
Michael Rogin, Subversive Geneology (Melville), 1979
Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the attic. 1979.
Elaine Showalter, a Literature of their Own. 1977


7: Postmodern re-reinventions: Foucault, Barthes, and Derrida

Gender, class, society, authorship, audience, ethnicity, oral tradition
Michel Foucault, The History of sexuality, 1878-86.
Nina Baym, Novels, Readers, and Reviewers, 1984
Michael Gilmore, American Romanticism and the Marketplace, 1985
Jane Tomkins, Sensationalist Designs. 1985 (Gothic)
Myra Jehlen, American Incarnation. 1986.
Sacvan Berkovitch, ed,, Ideology and Classic American Literature, 1986
Donald Pease, Visionary Compacts, 1987
Amy Schrager Lang, Prophetic Woman: Anne Hutchinson, 1987
David S Reynolds, Beneath the American Renaissance, 1988
Henry Louis Gates, Jr, The Signifying Monkey, 1988
Larry Reynolds, The American Renaissance and the Revolutions of 1848, 1988


8. Recent biographies:

Stowe: Joan D Hedrick
Whitman: David Reynolds, Walt Whitman's America
Jacobs: Jean Fagin Yellin edition
Twain: Justin Kaplan
Chopin: Emily Toth
Melville: --
Emerson: --

B. Standard Reference works

1. Handbooks:

Max J. Herzberg, Reader's Encyclopedia of AL, 1962, rev. George Perkins, gen. ed., 1991
Dictionary of American English (DAE)

Useful collections:

Heath Anthology of American Literature, 3nd ed. Vol 1
Perry Miller, The Transcendentalists (1951); The American Transcendentalists (1956)
The Word Cruncher Disc, Vol. 1 (electronic texts of Library of America editions of Franklin, Jefferson, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Hawthorne, Melville, James, Mark Twain, Jack London, Willa Cather)

2. General or period bibliography:

PMLA Annual Bibliography, 1922-- (on-line via OCLC; also on WilsonDisc CD-ROM, 1963-1980, 1981--)
America: History and Life, 1964-- (on-line via Dialog)
F W Bateson et al, Guide to English and American Literature, 3rd ed, 1976
Maurice Duke, ed., American Women Writers, 1983
Nancy Baker, A Research Guide for Undergraduate Students, MLA 1989
Michael Marcuse, A Reference Guide for English Studies, 1990
A. LaVonne Browne Ruoff, ed, Redefining American Literary History, 1990

3. Literary Bibliography and History:

Robert A Rees & Harbert, Fifteen American Authors (rev 1984) (Bryant, Dickinson, Holmes, Longfellow, Whittier)
Emory Elliott, ed, Columbia Literary History of the United States (1988)
Clarence Gohdes and Sanford Marovitz, Bibliographical Guide to the Literature of the United States (5th ed, 1984)
Lewis Leary, American Literature: A Study and Research Guide (1976).
Marcus Cunliffe, ed. American Literature to 1900, 1987
Pelican American Literature (in New Pelican Guide to English Literature, gen. ed. Boris Ford) v.9, 1988

4. Bibliographies and guides:

Lewis Leary, Articles on American Literature, 1900-1950. 1954. Supplements.
James Woodress, Dissertations in AL, 1891-1966. Rev 1968.
Roy P. Basler, A Guide to the Study of the USA. 1960.
Harvard Guide to American History. rev 1974.
Jack Salzman, ed. American Studies: An Annotated Bibiography 3 v, 1984-88. 1990.
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, 1802-1881. 1891. Suppl.
Elinore Partridge. American Prose and Criticism, 1820-1900. Gale 1983.
C Hugh Holman, comp., The American Novel through Henry James (bibliogaphy). 2nd ed. 1979.
Schweik & Reisner, Reference Sources in English and American Literature (1977)

5. Dictionaries, histories, surveys:

Dictionary of American Biography (DAB), 20 v. 1928-1954.
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biographty. 6 v. 1887-1900.
National Cyclopedia of American Biograpohy. 76 v. 1898-
Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, Vol 1:1741-1850. 1930.
Rod Horton & H. Edwards, Backgrounds of Americna Literarty Thought, 3rd ed. 1974.
Emory Elliot. ed. The Columbia History of the American Noivel. 1991.
Eugene Ehrlich, The Oxford Illusrated Literary Guide to the US. 1=982
Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), (Gale project)
Joel Myerson, The American Renaissance in New England (1978)

6. Periodicals:

American Literary Scholarship, 1965-- (annual)
America: History and Life.
PMLA International Bibliography (PMLAIAB).
American Literary History (AmLH), 1989--
American Literature (AL), 1929--
American Quarterly (AQ), 1949--
New England quarterly. 1928--
American Transcdentendal Quarterly (ATQ). 1969--
Emerson Society Quarterly (ESQ_). 1955--
Studies in the American Renaissance. 1977--

7. 19th Century American Poetry and Fiction:

American Poetry of the 19th Century (2 v, 1993, Library of America; also Mac CD ROM)
Philip K Jason, Nineteenth Century American Poetry: An Annotated Bibliography (1989)
Oxford Book of American Poetry, ed. Richard Ellmann (1976)
Hyatt H Waggoner, American Poets from the Puritans to the Present (1968)
Roy Harvey Pearce, The Continuity of American Poetry (1961)
Norton Anthology of Poetry
The Columbia History of the American Novel,

8. New Directions:

Heath Anthology of American Literature (Paul Lauter)
Redefining American Literary History (A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff)
Redrawing the Boundaries (Stephen Greenblatt)

C. Author Bibliographies:

Edited to here, 2/20/98

---

Important poetical sources:
Rise of higher criticism, philology, psychology
Goethe, German philosophy and idealism
French radicalism, revolutions of 1780, 1830, 1848
"Ossian," the Gaelic epic
Native American culture (Schoolcraft)
Central American archeology (Stephens)

Some American themes:
Nationalism, patriotism, sectionalism, local color
Theology, philosophy, mythlogy
Moralizing and sentimentality
Educational function of poetry
Laments for state of American literature
American West, nature, Hudson River school
Confessional and autobiographical writing
Republican and democratic ideals, culture, morality
Criticism of the top: monarchic, feudal, aristocratic culture
Criticism of the bottom: frontier, poverty, egalitarian abuses
Old Ethnic diversity: Indian, Dutch, African, Jewish Americans
Satire on society, social change, economic mobility
Abolition, Mexican War, national politics, feminism
Manifest destiny and the West
Technology and industrialization


Major historical events, 1800-1860
Napoleonic Wars
Louisiana Purchase
War of 1812
Era of canal and turnpike building
Jacksonian democracy
Displacement of Native Americans into reservations
Steam power in transatlantic vessels, printing press
Penny press, cheap reprints, and international copyright dispute
Political party support for American magazines and writers
Invention and dissemination of photography, telegraph
Industrial and commercial development: RRs and factories
Books after visits to America by Dickens, Marryatt, Trollope, etc.
Almost wars with England, Cuba, Canada
Mexican War and expansion into Texas and southwest
Revolutions of 1848 throughout Europe
Slavery debate and national political compromises
Technological optimism: Crystal Palace exposition In London
Civil War



Gender and feminism: some related American authors
Lydia Maria Child
Margaret Fuller
Fanny Fern (Sara Payson Willis)
Melville, Tartarus of Maids
Gilman, Yellow Wallpaper
Writings by Whitman, Longfellow

Technology and industrialization: some related American readings
H. Bruce Franklin, Future Perfect
Poe: proto-science fiction writings
Hawthorne, Rappaccini's Daughter
Thoreau, Walden
Melville, Tartarus of Maids
Whitman, Passage to India, To A Locomotive
Bellamy, Looking Backward
Electronic research:
Personal E-mail accounts on Pegasus
IRIS, RLIN, CARL, etc
Class mailing list (TBA)
American Literature newsgroup at Rutgers-Newark
Web Home Page for English department (Newark)
Direct URL: http://www.rutgers.edu/runedge.html
Via Rutgers Info: Other departments and servers -- English

Databases:
Vendors: Dialog/Knowledge Index/Compuserv
WilsonDisc/WilsonLine
Art Index
Bibliograpic Index
Biography Index
Book Review Digest
Books in Print
Essay and General Literature Index
Humanities Index (Dana CD ROM)
PMLA Bibliography, 1981-- (Dana CD ROM)
Reader's Guide
BRS
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Books in Print
Dissertation Abstracts
Dialog
America: Histry and Life
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Book Review Index
Books in Print
MAgazine Index.
Philosophers Index
OCLC
PMLAIAB
First Search
Dana Library/Rutgers
InfoTrac (Dana)
RLIN (Internet)
Carl (Internet)
Internet
Rutgers, Princeton, NYU, NYPL, LC, other catalogs
Hytelnet, Archie, Gopher, WWW, Mosaic
Gutnberg, Wiretap, OBI

Margaret Fuller:
Woman in the Nineteeth Century
Papers on Literature and Art
Memoirs, ed. Channing, Clarke & Emerson (1852)
Letters: Hudspeth, 1983-
Selections: Jeffrey Steele (1992), Myerson in Heath Anthology

Secondary works:
Life: Stern (1952), Chevigny (1976), Paula Blanchard (1978)
Joel Myerson: Bibliography, Critical Essays
Lowell, Fable for Critics (1848)
Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter (1850), Blithedale Romance (1852)
Poe, Ligea (183xx)

End of file
Last modified 2/8/98