Crossings in Nineteenth-Century American Culture

Book excerpt: 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.