Revolution and the Word

Combining rigorous historicism with new critical theory, and using a feminist perspective, Davidson questions the ideology implicit in any definition of a univocal "American literary tradition" and goes far beyond polemics to show an alternative--and subversive--American literary tradition at work. Examining not only the early novels themselves but also the people who produced them, sold them, and read them, she presents the genesis of American literature in its fullest possible context.