Reviewed by:

• The Cambridge Companion to Early American Literature ed. by Bryce Traister
• Ralph Baueer (bio)

This edited collection is intended to provide a succinct introduction to early American literature, its major themes and concepts, while also reflecting the significant changes that this field of study has undergone in the last thirty years or so. Formerly focused on the period between 1620 (the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth) to roughly 1800—the year that is usually seen as the end point of the Federalist era—early Americanist scholarship now frequently extends into the sixteenth century (and even the pre-Columbian era) as well as into the first three decades of the nineteenth century. Geographically, the traditional focus on Puritan New England and the Eastern Seaboard has given way to various hemispheric, transatlantic, and even transpacific perspectives. The traditional emphasis on theology and Revolutionary politics of the colonial elites has been complemented by the exploration of diverse identities along lines of race and gender in colonial and imperial contexts. The linguistic focus on texts originally written in English has been expanded to include texts written in other European languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and German, as well as Native American languages. And the long-standing privilege that the alphabetical medium and conventional methods of textual analysis have enjoyed in (early American) literary studies have been [End Page 749] challenged by a radical expansion of the concept of textuality to encompass multiple (including Native American) mediascapes in early America.

In his introduction, Bryce Traister provides a succinct and expert account of these disciplinary transformations that sets up the presentation of the volume in three parts: Part One features mostly theoretical considerations by Matt Cohen, Molly Farrell, Amy Morris, Laura Stevens, Marion Rust, and Dana Nelson on "how to read" early American materials, topoi, and genres (nonverbal communication, nature, gender, politics, poetry, and the novel). Part II presents chapters providing examples of readings of early American literature by Kathleen Donegan (on disaster and trauma), Jonathan Beecher Field (on the legacies of Puritanism), Paul Downs (on antislavery petitions), Ramesh Mallipeddi (on multiple forms of bondage in the British Caribbean), and Sandra Slater (on sex, erotics, and gender). And part III is organized topically, pushing the traditional geographic and cultural boundaries of early American studies in essays by Caroline Wigginton (on early Indigenous America), Allison Bigelow (on colonial Latin America), Michelle Burnham (on the Pacific), and Cassander Smith (on the Caribbean).

The topical diversity and scope of this volume are impressive, and the attempt to reflect the recent changes in the field is as ambitious as it is challenging. Readers looking for an introduction to early American literature will find an excellent companion on various topics. For example, the reader will find useful Molly Farrell's chapter on "How to Read the Natural World," which effectively synthesizes methodological considerations drawn from Critical Science Studies with a survey of textual examples ranging from natural histories of the Caribbean to scientific-political debates about smallpox and inoculation in early eighteenth-century Boston, and to the late eighteenth-century dispute in natural philosophy about the relationship between the natural environment and the development of human societies. Readers will also find helpful Amy Morris's chapter, which aims to recover early American poetry from post-Romantic critical, aesthetic, and literary historical norms—always a challenge in approaching early American writing—by focusing on the variable social contexts and functions—the "cultural work" (52)—of poetic productions in early America, ranging from the works of Michael Wigglesworth, Edward Taylor, and Anne Brad-street to those of John Wilson and Phillis Wheatley. [End Page 750]

The reader looking for a companion to the political contexts of early American writing during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries will find two chapters in this volume of particular interest. Dana Nelson's chapter, "How to Read Democracy in the Early United States," argues that the political landscape of the early republic can be understood in terms of a dichotomy between representative federal republicanism on the one hand and "vernacular" or "common" democracy on the other...

审阅者：

• 剑桥早期美国文学指南编辑。通过布莱斯·特雷斯特
• 拉尔夫·鲍尔（简介）

这部编辑过的文集旨在简要介绍美国早期文学及其主要主题和概念，同时也反映这一研究领域在过去三十年左右所经历的重大变化。早期美国主义学术研究以前主要关注 1620 年（朝圣者抵达普利茅斯）到大约 1800 年（这一年通常被视为联邦党时代的终点）这一时期，而现在经常延伸到 16 世纪（甚至是前 1800 年）。 -哥伦布时代）以及十九世纪的前三十年。从地理上看，对清教徒新英格兰和东海岸的传统关注已经让位于各种半球、跨大西洋、甚至跨太平洋的视角。殖民精英传统上对神学和革命政治的重视得到了对殖民和帝国背景下种族和性别多元化身份的探索的补充。对最初用英语编写的文本的语言关注已扩展到包括用其他欧洲语言编写的文本，包括西班牙语、葡萄牙语、法语、荷兰语和德语以及美洲原住民语言。字母媒介和文本分析的传统方法在（早期美国）文学研究中享有的长期特权已受到文本性概念彻底扩展以涵盖多种（包括美洲原住民）的挑战[结束第 749 页]美国早期的媒体景观。

布莱斯·特雷斯特 (Bryce Traister) 在引言中对这些学科变革进行了简洁而专业的描述，将本书分为三个部分：第一部分主要介绍马特·科恩 (Matt Cohen)、莫莉·法雷尔 (Molly Farrell)、艾米·莫里斯 (Amy Morris)、劳拉·史蒂文斯 (Laura Stevens)、马里昂·鲁斯特 (Marion Rust) 的理论思考，和达纳·纳尔逊（Dana Nelson）关于“如何阅读”早期美国材料、主题和流派（非语言交流、自然、性别、政治、诗歌和小说）。第二部分的章节提供了凯瑟琳·多尼根（关于灾难和创伤）、乔纳森·比彻·菲尔德（关于清教主义遗产）、保罗·唐斯（关于反奴隶制请愿书）、拉梅什·马利佩迪（关于美国多种形式的奴役）阅读美国早期文学的例子。英属加勒比地区）和桑德拉·斯莱特（关于性、色情和性别）。第三部分按主题组织，在卡罗琳·威金顿（关于早期美国原住民）、艾莉森·毕格罗（关于拉丁美洲殖民地）、米歇尔·伯纳姆（关于太平洋）和卡桑德·史密斯的文章中突破了早期美国研究的传统地理和文化界限。 （在加勒比海）。

本书的主题多样性和范围令人印象深刻，反映该领域最近变化的尝试既雄心勃勃，又具有挑战性。想要了解美国早期文学的读者会在各种主题上找到一个很好的伴侣。例如，莫莉·法雷尔（Molly Farrell）关于“如何阅读自然世界”的章节对读者会有所帮助，该章有效地综合了从批判科学研究中得出的方法论考虑因素，并调查了从加勒比海的自然历史到关于自然世界的科学政治辩论等文本示例。十八世纪初期波士顿的天花和接种，以及十八世纪末自然哲学中关于自然环境与人类社会发展之间关系的争论。读者也会发现艾米·莫里斯的章节很有帮助，该章旨在通过关注可变的社会背景和功能——“文化作品”（52）——美国早期的诗歌作品，从迈克尔·威格尔斯沃思、爱德华·泰勒和安妮·布拉德斯特里特的作品到约翰·威尔逊和菲利斯·惠特利的作品。[完第750页]

想要了解十八世纪末十九世纪初美国早期写作的政治背景的读者会发现本书中的两章特别有趣。达纳·纳尔逊（Dana Nelson）的章节“如何解读美国早期的民主”认为，早期共和国的政治格局可以通过代议制联邦共和主义与“本土”或“共同”民主之间的二分法来理解在另一...