Susan Castillo's pioneering study examines the extraordinary proliferation of polyphonic or 'multi-voiced' texts in the three centuries following the first contact between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Taking a selection of plays, printed dialogues, travel narratives and lexicographic studies in English, Spanish and French, the book explores both European and indigenous writers of the early Americas. Paying particular attention to performance and performativity in the texts of the early colonial world, Susan Castillo asks: - why vast numbers of polyphonic and...

Compiled in response to emerging transnational perspectives in American Studies, this comprehensive and imaginative anthology brings together a rich variety of works of colonial literature from across the Americas, covering the period from first contact, through to settlement and the emergence of national identities, with an emphasis on the American Revolutionary period.

American Literature in Context to 1865 discusses the issues and events that engaged American writers of the period, providing original and useful readings of important literary works that demonstrate how context contributes to meaning

• Covers a range of genres including the myths, chants and songs of indigenous cultures, sermons, slave narratives, essays and the novels and poetry to 1865
• Designed to be used alongside the major anthologies of literature from the period
• Equips students with the necessary historical context needed to understand the writings from...