Díaz, María Eugenia

Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna

A BROADER FRAMEWORK FOR AMERICAN STUDIESELLIOT, Emory, ed., Columbia Literary History of the United States, ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1988, XXVTH + 1263 pp.This brand new survey of American literature constitutes one of the mostimportant editorial releases of the last few years. Its main interest resides in itsbeing the first book of similar comprehensiveness and rigor to appear since thepublication in 1948 of Literary History of the United States by Spiller, Thorp,Johnson, and Canby.Prof. Elliot and the large group of schollars who participate here celebrate withthis History the 50th anniversary of the creation of autonomous Programs ofAmerican Studies in the U.S.A. The achievement of the separation of AmericanLiterature from English Literature constituted a new independence that occurredwith no little struggle.This book responds to a need for the revision of the canon of AmericanLiterature. The patterns of study in literature and history that became dominant inthe nineteenth century have lost their power and alternative views are beingoffered now. Revision is carried on by historians in books such as Peter N. Carrolland David W. Noble's The Free and the Unfree: A New History of the United States,which concentrates on redefining America, not as a frontier of Europe, thatconstitutes a reduced perception of Americans as descendants of Europeans andnothing else, but as dwellers within a country shared by Afro-Americans, Jews,Catholics, Native American. That is, not America as frontier but America as home.As for the literary field, this ambitious volume brings the reader up to date onthe recent directions American Literature is now taking. The continuous search—since the 1930s— for a consensus in the critical approach to national literatureis here reflected in a pluralistic representation of the various viewpoints nowcurrent: "the present project is modestly postmodern: it acknowledges diversity,complexity, and contradiction by making them structural principles, and it forgoesclosure as well as consensus". It adds to the canon a broad new space to thosecritical trends more widely developed in this decade: Women Writers, AmericanIndianWriters, Chicano Writers, Asian American Writers, And other minorities aswell as Postmodernist Writers, etc.331REVISTA CANARIA DE ESTUDIOS INGLESESAmerican Studies Programs are attempting in this decade to overcome thatperiod of loose confederation of disciplines to achieve a new more, defined objectof study. The Columbia Literary History of the United States takes into accountthese problems, especially the attempt to broaden the boundaries of the study ofliterature, in a search for a new method that would ecompass all academicdisciplines converging upon the same topic (anthropology, history, sociology,semiotics, comparative literature, etc.)With this book we have a new title to add to the pioneering works ofautonomous Americanists like Parrington's 1927 publication ofMain Currents inAmerican Thought (1927-30) where American culture entered a new era with thepremise that an "American Mind" as a single entity had a characteristic place inthe "New World" that was peculiarly hopeful, innocent, individualistic, pragmaticand idealistic. This view was also maintained in F. O. Matthiessen's AmericanRenaissance (1941), H. N. Smith's Virgin Land (1950), and Leo Marx's TheMachine in the Garden (1964). Later, universities such as Columbia, GeorgeWashington, Harvard, Minnesota, Princeton, Amherst, etc., concentrated anenormous effort on improving and developing a new version of what should be anational multidisciplinary study.It is refreshing to see that for once American Literature existed before thePilgrims. This reversion to the origins of oral literature has never occurred in a textbook of American Literature. But the pre-literate expression of art in America isvery important in this history or survey as the infuential author N. Scott Momadaybeautifully explains that "the native voice of American Literature is indispensable"especially if we want to study contemporary Indian writers whose tradition is thisnative America.Even though the periodization is compatible with most survey manuals or textbooks, considerable attention has been paid to integrate, rather than simply add,the literature of women and minorities, so that the traditional view from the elitewhite male perspective can be revised. Examples are chapters such as: "The Riseof the Woman Author", "Women Writers Between the Wars", "Asian AmericanLiterature", "Afro-American Literature", and "Mexican American Literature".In a recent conversation at Princeton, the general editor Prof. Elliot told methat the very title of the book is an attempt to create a consciousness of thenecessity of arriving at precision in dealing with the national identity —the nameused here is United States instead of America, which would refer to the wholecontinent. However, the publishers had to be convinced to revise the usual title. MrElliot was also worried about the length and expense of the book. Aparently he hadin mind a shorter and more affordable edition which could consequently be morewidely influential. Anyway this book has been well received and its spreadinginterest is proved by the fact that it will be soon translated into Spanish, French andItalian, which means that it will reach a broad spectrum of readers. After so manydisastrous publications of American Literature surveys in the last year, the Spanishreaders are anxious to amplify their information and will find this book worth toread.332A BROADER FRAMEWORK FOR AMERICAN STUDIESThe Columbia Literary History of the United States is indispensable as anintroductory course for university students but will also interest the general readerwho wants to expand his view of literature in the New World. It has no footnotesor bibliography, but this constitutes no detriment to its scope and only indicates theintention of the editor to reach a wide audience that would be deterred by andexcess of distracting dates and facts.M.a Eugenia Diaz333

A Broader Framework for American Studies

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A Broader Framework for American Studies

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