American Literature in the World

Yale University Graduate Conference: "American Literature in the World," April 19, 2013.

Margaret Fuller and Herman Melville. Edith Wharton and Mark Twain. Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. Langston Hughes and Elizabeth Bishop. Leslie Silko and Lyn Hejinian. Edwidge Danticat and Junot Diaz. Jhumpa Lahiri and Dave Eggers.

To study these and countless other authors is to see that the United States and the world are neither separate nor antithetical, but part of the same analytic fabric. "American Literature in the World" will explor these complex networks on a variety of platforms: from the human bodies and cultural archives migrating across the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Caribbean, to the dynamic interactions between indigenous populations and those from other continents; from the publishing circuits and institutions of print, to the new genres and media making up the digital globalism of the twenty-first century.

This is a conference with a strong emphasis on research and publication, anchored by a publication workshop led by Gordon Hutner, editor of American Literary History, who will be working closely with conference participants to develop individual essays. Research drawing on the collections at the Beinecke Library is especially welcome.

The conference is generously supported by the Beinecke Library, the English Department, and the American Studies Program at Yale University. 

For more information: matthew.rager@yale.edu.