Continental divides

About this book

"The essays in this volume juxtapose African American, Mexican American, and Anglo American fictions produced in the wake of both the Civil War and the U.S.-Mexican War, contiguous national conflicts that remain segregated in critical practice. At once comparative and intertextual, the readings in this study redefine western literature in its relation to other U.S. regional literary formations. Goldman's arguments question critical sectionalism as extensively as they do regional divisions by blurring generic distinctions, by reading across literary periods, and by juxtaposing writers who explore the same set of social issues during the same historical moment, but who are conventionally located in distinct literary traditions - sentimental literature, the African American novel, literary modernism, and early Mexican American fiction."--Jacket.