The Part and the Whole in Early American Literature, Print Culture, and Art

"Professional, well edited, and innovative. . . . The collection creates necessary space for the careful examination of passed-over or ignored, but important, literary and visual art. Recommended." (CHOICE) "Brilliantly shows that respecting the plural, disjunctive, and fragmentary character of much early American writing makes marginalized genres interesting, and permits us to read women, minority writers, and history itself in exciting new ways. Highly recommended!" - Eve Tavor Bannet (author of Eighteenth-Century Manners of Reading: Print Culture and Popular Instruction in the Anglop) "This book bristles with new claims, local insights, and a bona fide enthusiasm of renovation. Its conceptual interventions and its roving, voracious engagement with all kinds of cultural objects will make it a touchstone in the field. I imagine colleagues buying the book, using it in their writing and teaching, and repeatedly skipping and skimming their way through the essays with pleasure." - Matthew Garrett (author of Episodic Poetics: Politics and Literary Form after the Constitution) "This excellent collection offers a compelling new view of literary textuality in early America. . . . The pieces are well written and reader-friendly. I found myself carried along, learning a great deal about texts and authors that I have long studied and others that I have hardly known. Strong from beginning to end." - Abram Van Engen (coeditor of A History of American Puritan Literature)