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Creating American Civilization A Genealogy of American Literature as an Academic Discipline David R. Shumway |
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Academic disciplines, one might suppose, study what's there to be studied. But American literature, David Shumway contends, is the product of study, the deliberate invention of a discipline seeking to define the character and legitimate the existence of a specifically American civilization. His book traces the various reconstitutions of American literature by examining the discipline's practices and techniques, discourses and structures, paradigms and unstated assumptions. This genealogy begins around 1890, when American literature as defined by institutions outside the academy, such as magazines and publishing houses, acquired much of the ideology it would display in later phases, including sexism, racism, and class bias. With the founding of the American Literature Group of the Modern Language Association in 1920, American literature became a research discipline practicing the positivist literary history typical of English departments at that time, and Shumway shows how the institutional and professional organization of the field, as well as the research practice itself, redefined its subject. Shumway examines not only the professional, political, and ideological forces behind these changes but also the cultural and historical conditions that led the discipline to the creation of a unique American civilization certified by achievement in literature. Singular in its treatment of American literary study as a discipline rather than as criticism, and in its insistence on the cultural and political work carried on by this discipline, this book will engage literary theorists and historians as well as all those with an interest in American literature. “Shumway’s book puts forth a complex argument, clearly and entertainingly articulated.” —Publishing Research Quarterly “Shumway’s is a major synthetic history that will undoubtedly be central to future work on the subject. Shumway has made his book practical. For anyone interested in reinventing American literature, this is an essential history of what we have inherited.” —American Literature “Shumway does a good job of presenting this complex picture. All in all, there’s good food for thought here, a usable past we might very well pay attention to as we ply our academic Pequod toward the future.” —New England Quarterly “For readers outside the academy Creating American Civilization provides a fascinating glimpse of what goes on in the ivory tower. For those of us inside that tower the book is even more essential reading, yielding invaluable perspectives on what we do—and how , why, or whether we might choose to do it differently.” —Rocky Mountain Review “Excellent. Creating American Civilization not only deals in detail with a rich array of people and issues in literature and criticism but also offers keen speculation about broader themes of educational theory and practice, the rise of the university, the values that American culture embodies, and the significance of ‘nationalism’ as a political force.” —Journal of American History “Sweeping and informative.” —College Literature David R. Shumway is an associate professor of literary and cultural studies at Carnegie Mellon University. 456 pages | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 | 1993 |
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$25.50 paper