The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York

A portrait of the diverse literary cultures of the city from its beginnings as a Dutch colony to the present.

Cyrus R. K. Patell (Edited by), Bryan Waterman (Edited by)

9780521514712, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 March 2010

282 pages, 15 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.58 kg

"Patell and his co-editor Bryan Waterman have assembled a strong team of scholars and an attractive array of topics. One cannot but be grateful for all the insight and erudition assembled here. The contributors have made a bold stab at mapping the literary ground as it looks in our context-oriented, politically engaged new millennium...The scholarship is thorough and up-to-date...For those now arriving at the portals of New York culture, The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York will provide a valuable welcome."
-William Chapman Sharpe, nbol-19.org

New York holds a special place in America's national mythology as both the gateway to the USA and as a diverse, vibrant cultural center distinct from the rest of the nation. From the international atmosphere of the Dutch colony New Amsterdam, through the expansion of the city in the nineteenth century, to its unique appeal to artists and writers in the twentieth, New York has given its writers a unique perspective on American culture. This Companion explores the range of writing and performance in the city, celebrating Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton, Eugene O'Neill, and Allen Ginsberg among a host of authors who have contributed to the city's rich literary and cultural history. Illustrated and featuring a chronology and guide to further reading, this book is the ideal guide for students of American literature as well as for all who love New York and its writers.

Chronology
Introduction Cyrus R. K. Patell
1. From British outpost to American metropolis Robert Lawson-Peebles
2. Dutch New York from Irving to Wharton Elizabeth L. Bradley
3. The city on stage Bryan Waterman
4. Melville, at sea in the city Thomas Augst
5. Whitman's urbanism Lytle Shaw
6. The early literature of New York's moneyed class Caleb Crain
7. Writing Brooklyn Martha Nadell
8. New York and the novel of manners Sarah Wilson
9. Immigrants, politics and the popular cultures of tolerance Eric Homberger
10. Performing Greenwich Village bohemianism Melissa Bradshaw
11. African American literary movements Thulani Davis
12. New York's cultures of print Trysh Travis
13. From poetry to punk in the East Village Daniel Kane
14. Staging lesbian and gay New York Robin Bernstein
15. Emergent ethnic literatures Cyrus R. K. Patell
Epilogue: Nostalgia and counter-nostalgia in New York City writing Bryan Waterman
Guide to further reading.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D]