Programs and Areas

American Literature to 1900 Area

American literature before 1900 covers 350 years of literary history in and about the United States, from the earliest descriptions of the "New World" through the rise of Realism and the earliest confrontations with modernism. The department at Ohio State provides balanced coverage and expertise across all periods, and we approach the field from a range of critical and theoretical perspectives. Despite the many differences in our approaches, however, there are a few central unifying concerns that motivate our work as a field; in different ways many of us are engaged with the history of the book, history of American genres and forms, the history of American literature as a discipline, women writers and the construction of gender in American literature and the literary profession, critical race theory and the historical construction of race and ethnicity in American literature, American poetry and poetics, American periodicals, and cultural studies broadly conceived. We also have a shared commitment to American Studies, working with colleagues in history (through the Ohio Seminar in Early American History), art history, and comparative studies to promote cross-disciplinary work. In addition, Ohio State is home to the Centenary Edition of the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (currently being completed by professor emeritus Thomas Woodson) as well as to the acclaimed Charvat Collection of American Fiction, a collection initiated by William Charvat, who taught in the English department and whose Profession of Authorship in America is now a classic text in American book history.

English Faculty

• Thomas Cooley, Professor Emeritus
• Steven Fink, Associate Professor
• Jared Gardner, Associate Professor
• Elizabeth Hewitt, Associate Professor
• Elizabeth Renker, Associate Professor
• Andrea Williams, Assistant Professor
• Susan Williams, Professor

Web Resources

Some Societies in which we participate

• American Literature Association
  A coalition of societies devoted to the study of American authors, with an annual conference in May.
• American Studies Association
  Multi-disciplinary national society of American Studies, with an annual conference in November.
• MELUS
  Society for the study of multi-ethnicl literature in the United States, with an annual conference in April.
• Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
  A global network for book historians
• Society of Early Americanists
  Society of scholars of American culture to 1800.
• Research Society for American Periodicals
  interdisciplinary organization of scholars interested in American magazines and newspapers.
• Society for the Study of American Women Writers
  Study of American women writers through the research, teaching, publication.

Some journals in the field which we read regularly

• American Literature -- Each issue contains articles covering the works of several American authors--from colonial to contemporary--as well as an extensive book review section.
• American Literary History -- Through essays, position papers, and commentaries, along with reviews, interviews, and previously unpublished diaries, letters, and stories, American Literary History surveys the contested field of US culture four times a year.
• American Quarterly -- American Quarterly represents innovative interdisciplinary scholarship that engages with key issues in American Studies.
• Arizona Quarterly -- ARIZONA QUARTERLY: A Journal of American Literatures, Culture, and Theory publishes articles offering a variety of scholarly approaches to canonical and non-canonical works of American literature and film.
• Early American Literature -- The journal of the Modem Language Association's American Literature Division 1, Early American Literature publishes the finest work of scholars examining American literature from its inception through the early national period, about 1830.

Some listservs we subscribe to

• DICKNSON@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU : Emily Dickinson Discussion List
• EARAM-L@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU: Society of Early Americanists
• H-AMSTDY: H-NET List for American Studies
• H-OIEAHC: H-NET/OIEAHC Electronic Association in Early American Studies

Some of our favorite resources on the Web

• American Memory Project: Library of Congress -- American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
• The Electronic Text Center at UVA -- The Etext Center was founded on a commonsense vision that combines emerging network and digitizing technologies with our subject expertise and library skills.
• Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875 -- This is a collection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle Wright's bibliography American Fiction, 1851-1875.
• American Antiquarian Society -- The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) is an independent research library founded in 1812 in Worcester, Massachusetts.
• Making of America: Cornell | Michigan -- A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
• American Studies Yellow Pages -- The American Studies Crossroads Project is a project of the American Studies Association with sponsorship by Georgetown University.
• Henry James Scholar's Guide to Web Sites -- Extensive list of e-text and other Web sites.

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