New and original collection of scholarly essays examining the literary complexities of the Atlantic world system This Companion offers a critical overview of the diverse and dynamic field of Atlantic literary studies, with contributions by distinguished scholars on a series of topics that define the area. The essays focus on literature and culture from first contact to the present, exploring fruitful Atlantic connections across space and time, across national cultures, and embracing literature, culture and society. This research collection proposes that the analysis of literature and culture does not depend solely upon geographical setting to uncover textual meaning. Instead, it offers Atlantic connections based around migration, race, gender and sexuality, ecologies, and other significant ideological crossovers in the Atlantic World. The result is an exciting new critical map written by leading international researchers of a lively and expanding field. Key Features Offers an introduction to the growing field of Atlantic literary studies by showcasing current work engaged in debate around historical, cultural and literary issues in the Atlantic World Includes 26 newly-commissioned scholarly essays by leading experts in Atlantic literary studies Fuses breadth of historical knowledge with depth of literary scholarship Considers the full range of intercultural encounters around and across the Atlantic Ocean

This Companion offers a critical overview of the diverse and dynamic field of Atlantic literary studies, with contributions by distinguished scholars on a series of topics that define the area. The essays focus on literature and culture from first contact to the present, exploring fruitful Atlantic connections across space and time, across national cultures, and embracing literature, culture and society. This research collection proposes that the analysis of literature and culture does not depend solely upon geographical setting to uncover textual meaning. Instead, it offers Atlantic perspectives on migration, race, gender and sexuality, ecologies, and other significant ideological crossovers in the Atlantic world. The result is an exciting new critical map created by leading international researchers of a lively and expanding field. Key Features-- Offers an introduction to the growing field of Atlantic literary studies by showcasing current work engaged in debate around historical, cultural and literary issues in the Atlantic World.-- Includes 26 newly-commissioned scholarly essays by leading experts in Atlantic literary studies.-- Fuses breadth of historical knowledge with depth of literary scholarship.-- Considers the full range of intercultural encounters around and across the Atlantic Ocean.

This is a rediscovery of the bold cosmopolitan activism and professional literary adventures of six antebellum writers. By looking beyond the familiar works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Grace Greenwood, Margaret Fuller and Frederick Douglass to their public commentaries in lectures, reviews, and newspaper columns, this study uncovers their startling contributions to transatlantic culture. Louise Eckel argues that writing American literature was only one among their many vocational pursuits and that their work was powerfully influenced by wide-ranging political engagements and transnational friendships. The book's chapters balance close readings of primary texts, both literary (poems, essays) and non-literary (newspaper articles, lectures) with critically informed discussions of writers' transatlantic experiences. While each focuses on a single author, each converses with other chapters on the subjects of nationalism, cosmopolitanism, creativity, and reform. It questions the 'American' identity of representative authors, even as they test the moral and geographical limits of American nationality. It demonstrates the political and commercial power of transatlantic networking. It illuminates literature's dependence upon other modes of professional creativity. It examines archival documents alongside familiar literary works.