Before the West Was West examines the extent to which scholars have engaged in-depth with pre-1800 western texts and asks what we mean by western American literature in the first place and when that designation originated.Calling into question the implicit temporal boundaries of the American West in literature, a literature often viewed as having commenced only at the beginning of the 1800s, Before the West Was West explores the concrete, meaningful connections between different texts as well as the development of national ideologies and mythologies. Examining pre-nineteenth-century writings that do not fit conceptions of the Wild West or of cowboys, cattle ranching, and the Pony Express, these thirteen essays demonstrate that no single, unified idea or geography defines the American West. Contributors investigate texts ranging from the Norse Vinland Sagas and Mary Rowlandson s famous captivity narrative to early Spanish and French exploration narratives, an eighteenth-century English novel, and a play by Aphra Behn. Through its examination of the disparate and multifaceted body of literature that arises from a broad array of cultural backgrounds and influences, Before the West Was West apprehends the literary West in temporal as well as spatial and cultural terms and poses new questions about westernness and its literary representation.

Product Description: Reading the Roots is an unprecedented anthology of outstanding early writings about American nature―a rich, influential, yet critically underappreciated body of work. Rather than begin with Henry David Thoreau, who is often identified as the progenitor of American nature writing, editor Michael P...read more

Product Description: This volume gathers nineteen of the most representative and defining essays from the journal ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment over the course of its first ten years.Following an introduction that traces the stages of ecocriticism's development, The ISLE Reader is organized into three sections, each of which reflects one of the general goals the journal has sought to accomplish...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Ecocriticism is a scholarly approach to literature that is rapidly building momentum and legitimacy because of its usefulness as a means of inquiry into the relationship between human culture and the nonhuman world. This collection of essays suggests ways in which examining connections between literature and the physical environment can enrich the value of literary studies. (view table of contents)

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