A Question of Time

This book brings together leading critics in American literature to address the representation of time throughout a wide range of genres methodologies and chronological periods. American literature from its beginnings to the present provides a particularly rich set of texts to examine in this regard with its interest in history modernity and progress. Each essay considers how time embeds itself in a variety of textual representations including Native American rituals Shaker dances novels poetry and magazines in order to provide readers with a capacious view of time''s constitutive role in American literature. The essays are organized into four sections - Materializing Time Performing Time Timing Time and Theorizing Time. Each section reflects a particular approach to the question of time but taken as a whole the volume makes visible unexpected temporal patterns that cut across time period and genre.