Crossings in Nineteenth-Century American Culture - (Interventions in Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture) by Edward Sugden

About the Book

A state of the field essay collection that offers new models for analysing time, space, self and politics in nineteenth-century American culture.

Book Synopsis

Across four parts of exploratory, creative and speculative essays, this book provides provocative frameworks and readings of canonical and non-canonical literature. The essays cover off-the-map places, warped historical chronologies, excessive selves, unlikely meetings and systemic incommensurability. Collectively they define original methods, categories and terrains for the study of the American cultural past. Altogether, this collection interrogates some of the most dominant critical moves of the past two decades and proposes alternative ways of working and thinking with the American nineteenth century.

From the Back Cover

A state of the field essay collection that offers new models for analysing time, space, self and politics in nineteenth-century American culture Across four parts of exploratory, creative and speculative essays, this book provides provocative frameworks and readings of canonical and non-canonical literature. The essays cover off-the-map places, warped historical chronologies, excessive selves, unlikely meetings and systemic incommensurability. Collectively they define original methods, categories and terrains for the study of the American cultural past. Altogether, this collection interrogates some of the most dominant critical moves of the past two decades and proposes alternative ways of working and thinking with the American nineteenth century. Edward Sugden is Senior Lecturer in American Literature at King's College London.

Review Quotes

Featuring surprising stories and intriguing historical figures, Crossings challenges us to rethink nineteenth-century American culture. The era that consolidated identities of lasting political significance - from gender, race and region to the buffered self - was also an era in which these identities were frequently exceeded, confounded and evaded. A fascinating archeology for revising the identity politics of our time.

--Nancy Bentley, University of Pennsylvania

About the Author

Edward Sugden is Senior Lecturer in American Literature at King's College London. His first book is Emergent Worlds (NYU Press, 2018).