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  • Cited by 25
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      22 September 2009
      25 September 2008
      ISBN:
      9780511485657
      9780521896863
      9780521721615
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511485657
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.44kg, 216 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.33kg, 216 Pages
      • Series:
      Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture (156)
      Subjects:
      Literature, Area Studies, American Literature, American Studies, Literary Theory, Sociolinguistics, Language and Linguistics
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    Series:
    Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture (156)
    Subjects:
    Literature, Area Studies, American Literature, American Studies, Literary Theory, Sociolinguistics, Language and Linguistics
    Information

    Book description

    Throughout its history, America has been the scene of multiple encounters between communities speaking different languages. Literature has long sought to represent these encounters in various ways, from James Fenimore Cooper's frontier fictions to the Jewish-American writers who popularised Yiddish as a highly influential modern vernacular. While other studies have concentrated on isolated parts of this history, Lawrence Rosenwald's book is the first to consider the whole story of linguistic representation in American literature, and to consider as well how multilingual fictions can be translated and incorporated into a national literary history. He uses case studies to analyse the most important kinds of linguistic encounters, such as those between Europeans and Native Americans, those between slaveholders and African slaves, and those between immigrants and American citizens. This ambitious, engaging book is an important contribution to the study of American literature, history and culture.

    Reviews

    ‘This is a splendid book, unlike any currently in the field, and setting a standard for literary scholarship the rest of us can only aspire to. Lawrence Rosenwald brings to the project an impressive range of languages and a different vision of what we might want to do with texts. His goal is to write a history of American literature showcasing languages as the key players. Multilingual America is an impressive achievement: all Americanists will sit up and pay attention.’

    Wai Chi Dimock - Yale University

    ‘This is a remarkable work. This book addresses an extremely important and timely subject. It combines high intelligence and lucidity with deep erudition and modesty. Every page is extremely interesting. Every scholar or teacher of American literature will learn much from it, and it will be greatly useful to many students of American literature and culture (around the world as well as domestically), as well as to students and scholars of comparative literature and of intercultural encounter more broadly.’

    Jonathan Arac - University of Pittsburgh

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