Reviews
Here is a reader that culls the most important, brilliant, and groundbreaking pieces of literary criticism on a comparatist approach to American Studies and offers them to readers in one binding. It is a significant, timely critical achievement, and it is certain to be praised by students and scholars alike.
Recent events in the global political arena have led to a revaluation in the study of the Atlantic literatures and cultures. Manning and Taylor's reader brings together a wide range of criticism, from René Wellek to Wai Chee Dimock, to show that our understanding of those literatures and cultures is freshly derived yet firmly rooted. The book has a substantial introductory chapter and is shrewdly organised into six theoretical and thematic groups, each given a perceptive prologue. It will be required reading for years to come.