An Undergraduate American Literature and Identity Course Looks East to Great Britain

Abstract

As English departments continue to divide literary works into national camps, the transatlantic influence of and American print is often neglected, practice that frequently occludes valuable, productive dialectic between two cultures that are historically and textually connected. Studying American nineteenth-century print necessitates look to the east and in particular careful consideration of literary traditions and publishing practices. In recent years, scholars of periodical literature have offered persuasive arguments for transatlantic approach. As Meredith L. McGill explains, the lack of international copyright laws contributed to the practice of reprinting literary texts popular in America throughout the nineteenth century.1 The high cultural value placed on these works also reinforced the young nation's dependence on literary tradition beyond its geographical borders. Jennifer Phegley writes that American periodicals adapted a wide variety of publications for their own purposes.2 Citing the editorial practices of New Monthly Magazine in the mid-nineteenth century, Phegley notes that Harper's repackaged and redeployed literature for nation alistic purpose, thereby participating in the nation's transformation from of reprinting to of authorial originality and nationality. By incorporating British literary models in its publication, the editors of believed that their readers would eventually have the skills to both recognize and create distinctly tasteful American literary culture (64). appropriation of print as means of moving toward unique and discerning national literature was not an isolated case in the publishing practices of nineteenth-century America. As Michael Lund has pointed out, the attraction and resistance to the European model had been