Reading the West: New Essays on the Literature of the American West

Abstract

Introduction Michael Kowalewski Part I. Nature and Place in Western Writing: 1. Region, power, place William W. Bevis 2. Burros and Mustangs: literary evolutionism and the wilderness west David Rains Wallace Part II. Reimagining the American Frontier: 3.The Literature of loneliness: understanding the letters and diaries of the American West Shannon Applegate 4. Quoting the wicked wit of the West: Frontier reportage and Western vernacular Michael Kowalewski 5. Bierstadt's settings, Harte's plots Lee Mitchell Part III. Modern Western Revisions: 6. Sentimentalism in the American Southwest: John C. Van Dyke, Mary Austin and Edward Abbey Peter Wild 7. Revisionist Western classics Thomas J. Lyon 8. Molly's truthtelling, or Jean Stafford rewrites the Western Susan J. Rosowski 9. Borders, frontiers and mountains: mapping the history of 'US Hispanic Literature' Margaret Garcia Davidson Part IV. Contemporary Western Writing: A Mosaic: 10. The return of the native: the politics of identity in American Indian fiction of the West Philip Burnham 11. Regionalism makes good: the San Francisco Renaissance Linda Hamalian 12. 'The Circle Almost Circled': some notes on California's fiction James D. Houston 13. Fighting the religion of the present: Western motifs in the first wave of Asian American plays Misha Berson.