Early America and the Modern Imagination - by Patrick M Erben & Rebecca L Harrison (Hardcover)

About the Book

Analyses the pervasive use of early American themes in contemporary culture, including literature, television series, film, theatre, graphic novels and video games.

Book Synopsis

Recurring culture war controversies in the US--ranging from reproductive freedom and gender identity to racial inequality and immigration--often turn public attention to early American precedents. At the same time, early American figures and tropes enjoy a stunning cachet in popular culture. Early America and the Modern Imagination squarely interprets the significance and cultural uses of these transhistorical re-imaginings of the early American past. While drawing productively on public memory scholarship, this volume augments its neglect of early American studies. The collection's critical and pedagogical essays investigate how a variety of modalities--including literature, film, television, theatre, video games and graphic novels--rescript early America as a usable past for contemporary audiences. Early America and the Modern Imagination, therefore, interprets early American themes and their present-day echoes to grapple with the evolving and highly contested import of the American nation's past in the present cultural moment.

Review Quotes

This book is both brilliant and necessary. Each chapter links a deep knowledge of the past to its modern redeployments in contemporary media. In doing so, the book makes a powerful case for the humanities, explaining public memory and showing how important it is for literary scholars to study it. A vital project, and a terrific book.--Abram Van Engen, Washington University in St. Louis