Gender Studies, American & Canadian Literature, Genres & Literary Forms, United States History - 19th Century - Westward Migration & Development, General & Miscellaneous Literary Criticism, National Characteristics, Nationalism & Sovereignty
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Overview
Birthing a Nation is about national identity and the American West. If it is a truism that facing west was the American male version of invoking the Muse, what happened if you were female? Most past interpretations of western American literature have echoed Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier hypothesis, emphasizing the conflict of wilderness and civilization, the hero of rugged individualism, the act of returning to origins and reemerging as the reborn American Adam. In this reading of western American women writers who responded to the challenge to give birth to a nation, Susan J. Rosowski proposes an alternative, more hopeful affirmation of our cultural history and perhaps our cultural destiny. Rosowski begins by tracing the birth metaphor through three and a half centuries of American letters. She reexamines the premises underlying the telling of the literary West and posits a female model of creativity at the genesis of American literature. She follows four authors on a multigenerational journey, beginning with Margaret Fuller in 1843, moving on a generation later to Willa Cather, advancing to Jean Stafford, and ending with Marilynne Robinson. In her reading of these writers who most directly and deeply believed in literature as a serious and noble form of art and who wrote to influence how the country perceived itself, Rosowski contributes to the ongoing process of remapping the literary landscapeEditorials
Western American Literature
"Written by one of our leading critics, Birthing a Nation offers a revisionism to be reckoned with. . . . Rosowski extends her daunting expertise on Cather into the whole of (western) American literature and so revises the field in critical ways."—Western American LiteratureWestern American Literature
"Written by one of our leading critics, Birthing a Nation offers a revisionism to be reckoned with. . . . Rosowski extends her daunting expertise on Cather into the whole of (western) American literature and so revises the field in critical ways."—Western American Literature
Booknews
Now that nearly everyone has rejected the myths of conflict between wilderness and civilization and the hero of rugged individualism as the foundations of the Winning of the West, Rosowski (English, U. of Nebraska) proposes a female model of creativity as an alternative cultural history. She traces the birth metaphor through three and half centuries of American letters then follows four authors on a multigenerational journey from Margaret Fuller in 1843 through Willa Cather and Jean Stafford to Marilynne Robinson. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
December 1, 1999
Publisher
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c1999.
Pages
242
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780803239357