The Broadview Anthology of American Literature Volume A: Beginnings to 1820

Book excerpt: Covering American literature from its pre-contact Indigenous beginnings through the Reconstruction period, the first two volumes of The Broadview Anthology of American Literature represent a substantial reconceiving of the canon of early American literature. Guided by the latest scholarship in American literary studies, and deeply committed to inclusiveness, social responsibility, and rigorous contextualization, the anthology balances representation of widely agreed-upon major works with an emphasis on American literature’s diversity, variety, breadth, and connections with the rest of the Americas. Highlights of Volume A: Beginnings to 1820 • Complete texts of Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative and Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette • In-depth Contexts sections on such topics as “Slavery and Resistance,” “Rebellions and Revolutions,” and “Print Culture and Popular Literature” • Broader and more extensive coverage of Indigenous oral and visual literature than in competing anthologies • Full author sections in the anthology devoted not only to frequently anthologized figures but also to authors such as Anne Hutchinson, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Briton Hammon