A Short Literary History of the United States

Citation

Klarer, M. (2014). A Short Literary History of the United States. Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The book has about 200 pages, of which the literary history itself takes roughly 130. An introduction is followed by ten chapters: nine on periods and movements, from discovery narratives to postmodernism and ethnic writing, and a tenth on literary theory in the United States. The back matter is unusually large: an "extended glossary and study aid" of about thirty pages, suggested further reading, a bibliography and separate author-and-title and subject indexes. Routledge describes the book as an introduction for students who want to know the most important periods, authors and works of American literary history, covering the pre-colonial era to the present (including new media formats), with readings of individual texts set in American cultural history; Google Books' version of the description adds a list of secondary reading and links to open-access versions of essential texts. Mario Klarer is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Innsbruck. The page numbers below are those of the contents list in the Google Books preview.

Chapter 1: Discovery narratives

The opening chapter (pp. 1–9) deals with the earliest writing about America, the narratives of exploration and discovery that precede English settlement, in line with the publisher's claim of coverage from the pre-colonial era.

Chapter 2: Colonial literature

At about seventeen pages (pp. 10–26), the colonial chapter is one of the longer early ones. "Puritan" is among the frequent terms in Google Books' list of common terms and phrases for the book.

Chapter 3: Literature of the Early Republic

A ten-page chapter (pp. 27–36) on writing from the founding of the nation, the period before the major nineteenth-century movements.

Chapter 4: Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism receives its own short chapter (pp. 37–43); Thoreau and Walden appear in Google Books' list of the book's common terms.

Chapter 5: American Renaissance

The mid-nineteenth-century chapter (pp. 44–59) is one of the longest. Hawthorne, Poe, Whitman and Dickinson are among the authors in the list of common terms, as are the Gothic novel and the short story.

Chapter 6: Gilded Age—Realism

The chapter on the late nineteenth century (pp. 60–69) treats realism; Twain and James are among the names in the list of common terms.

Chapter 7: Modernism

Modernism has the longest of the period chapters (pp. 70–92). The list of common terms includes modernist poets as well as novelists: Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, e. e. cummings and Gertrude Stein appear, as does Gatsby.

Chapter 8: Postmodernism

A chapter of about thirteen pages (pp. 93–105) on writing after modernism, a period for which "metafictional" and "postmodern" appear among the book's common terms.

Chapter 9: Ethnic voices

The shortest chapter (pp. 106–111) gathers ethnic writing into a separate section at the end of the historical narrative.

Chapter 10: Literary theory in the United States

At twenty pages (pp. 112–131), the theory chapter is almost as long as the chapter on modernism. Terms such as deconstruction, poststructuralism, semiotics, narratology, feminist, gender and film theory appear in the list of common terms, indicating a survey of the critical approaches a student meets in an English or American studies programme.

Back matter: Extended glossary and study aid; Suggested further reading; Bibliography; Indexes

The glossary (pp. 132–161) explains literary terms for exam revision, and the suggested further reading (pp. 162–177) is followed by a bibliography and two indexes.

Key Concepts

Periods and movements (Chapters 1–8)

• Discovery narrative: the earliest European writing about America, before colonial settlement.
• Puritan and colonial writing: the literature of the English colonies.
• Transcendentalism: the mid-nineteenth-century movement associated with Thoreau and Walden.
• American Renaissance: the flowering of mid-nineteenth-century fiction and poetry.
• Realism, modernism and postmodernism: the successive movements from the Gilded Age to the late twentieth century.

Plurality and method (Chapters 9–10 and back matter)

• Ethnic voices: writing by the country's ethnic communities, treated in its own chapter.
• Literary theory: critical approaches from narratology and semiotics to deconstruction and gender criticism.
• Glossary and study aid: definitions of terms needed for analysis and examinations.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Compact and clearly segmented. Ten chapters, most of ten to twenty pages, follow the conventional period labels used in American literature surveys, which makes the book easy to align with a syllabus.
• Theory included. A twenty-page chapter on literary theory in the United States, almost as long as the longest period chapter, gives students the critical vocabulary they will need in seminars.
• Built as a study aid. The thirty-page extended glossary, the further reading list and the two indexes take up about a third of the volume; Routledge presents the book as a companion to courses and as an aid for exams.
• Links to texts. According to the description, the book lists open-access versions of essential texts, which helps students find the primary works.

Limitations

• Very short coverage per period. Several periods receive under ten pages, so the book can name and place authors but cannot discuss many works in depth.
• Ethnic writing set apart. The chapter on ethnic voices runs to about six pages, the shortest in the book, and stands as a separate chapter after postmodernism rather than being integrated into each period.
• Recent writing. Published in 2014, the book's account of the present stops there.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the American literature course this is the most compact overview and the one most directly designed for revision. Richard Gray's A Brief History of American Literature has almost three times as much narrative text, treats each period in continuous discussion and integrates "many Americas" (Native American, African American and women's writing) into every chapter; read Klarer for a quick map and Gray for argument and detail. The Norton Anthology of American Literature supplies the texts that both histories describe.

The single works on the list can be read against Klarer's period chapters: Moby-Dick against the American Renaissance, and Richard Wright's Black Boy and Toni Morrison's Beloved against the twentieth-century chapters and the chapter on ethnic voices. Leo Marx's The Machine in the Garden is a critical study of a single theme; Klarer's chapter on literary theory helps place that kind of scholarship among other approaches.

How to Use This Book

The book is for students taking a survey of American literature or an American studies programme, and for anyone preparing for an examination in the subject. No prior knowledge is assumed. Read the introduction and then the chapter for each period just before the course reaches it; most chapters can be read in one sitting.

Use the glossary actively: look up each term when it appears, and review it before exams. Read Chapter 10 when the course turns to critical approaches or when an essay asks for a theoretical framework. Follow the further reading and the open-access links to the primary texts, and for any author you write about, go to a fuller history such as Gray's or to specialised criticism.