Revolution and the Word

The Rise of the Novel in America

Expanded Edition

Cathy N. Davidson

Revolution and the Word remains the classic study of the co-emergence of the U.S. nation and the new literary genre of the novel. This expanded edition reframes this foundational study for the next generation of readers as it provides a new introductory survey and critique of the turbulent, controversial, and productive thinking in literary and cultural theory during the last two decades.

Revolution and the Word

The Rise of the Novel in America

Expanded Edition

Cathy N. Davidson

Description

Revolution and the Word is the classic study of the co-emergence of the U.S. nation and the new literary genre of the novel. The book remains the foundational study of reading, writing, and publishing in the new republic and provides a unique glimpse of the culture of early America. By looking at everything from publishers' account books to marginalia scrawled in eighteenth-century books to the novels themselves, Revolution and the Word provides an engaging social history of early American readership that is also informed by the most insightful aspects of literary theory.

With a backward glance at the culture wars and prognostications for what lies ahead, the comprehensive introduction of this expanded edition reframes Revolution and the Word for a new generation of scholars. It revisits topics of dissent in the early national period, the status of the Constitution as a document designed to quell the still-burning passions of the American Revolution, and the role played by the novel in publicizing and articulating complex desires not addressed at the Constitutional Convention. Cathy N. Davidson provides readers with a survey and critique of the controversial and productive thought in cultural, social, and political theory as it has evolved during the last twenty years. This astute and learned assessment of recent developments in literary and historical scholarship, colonial and postcolonial studies, race theory, gender and sexuality theory, class studies, cultural studies, and history of the book will make Revolution and the Word as urgent for this generation as it was for its original readers in 1986.

Revolution and the Word

The Rise of the Novel in America

Expanded Edition

Cathy N. Davidson

Introduction to the Expanded Edition
PART ONE
1. Introduction: Toward a History of Texts
2. The Book in the New Republic
3. Ideology and Genre
4. Literacy, Education, and the Reader
PART TWO
5. Commodity and Communication: The First American Novel
6. Privileging the Feme Covert: The Sociology of Sentimental Fiction
7. The Picaresque and the Margins of Political Discourse
8. Early American Gothic: The Limits of Individualism
9. Afterword: Texts as Histories
Notes
Index

Revolution and the Word

The Rise of the Novel in America

Expanded Edition

Cathy N. Davidson

Author Information

Cathy N. Davidson is Vice Provost of Interdisciplinary Studies and Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English at Duke University. She is co-founder of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, a past president of the American Studies Association, and a past editor of the journal American Literature.

Revolution and the Word

The Rise of the Novel in America

Expanded Edition

Cathy N. Davidson

Reviews and Awards

"Oxford is absolutely correct in presenting this new version of Davidson's book as enhanced and expanded. A powerhouse of scholarship dedicated to the ethnography of all novels published in the US between 1789 and 1820, the book presents the early American novel as the focus of a nascent dialogue of dissent on American identity and the newly formed ideals expounded in the U.S. Constitution.... What is new and exciting about this edition of the book is Davidson's 54-page introduction, in which she carefully examines the last 20 years of scholarship and lists important anthologies that have changed the shape of early American studies.... Highly recommended."--Choice

Praise for the previous edition: "Drawing on recent work in social history, post-structuralist literary theory and feminist studies, [Davidson] argues persuasively that the genesis of American fiction was an integral part of a widespread crisis of authority in early modern America.... A wonderful book."--The Nation

"A fascinating and groundbreaking book."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Revolution and the Word--sophisticated, comprehensive and imaginative--charts this wilderness birthplace of American fiction and updates our notion of literary criticism in the process.... As remarkable for its methods as for its message."--San Francisco Chronicle

"An engaging combination of information and analysis, Davidson's book on the production and readers of the early novel will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history of the novel, of reading, or of American literature."--Library Journal