Civil War Writing: New Perspectives on Iconic Texts (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807170240 ISBN 13: 9780807170243

Publisher: LSU Press, 2019

Synopsis

Civil War Writing is a collection of new essays that focus on the most significant writing about the American Civil War by participants who lived through it, whether as civilians or combatants, southerners or northerners, women or men, blacks or whites. Collectively, as contributors show, these writings have sustained their influence over generations and include histories, memoirs, journals, novels, and one literary falsehood posing as an autobiographical narrative. Several of the works, such as William Tecumseh Sherman’s memoirs or Mary Chesnut’s diary, are familiar to scholars, but other accounts, including Charlotte Forten’s diary and Loreta Velasquez’s memoir, offer new material to even the most omnivorous Civil War reader. In all cases, a deeper look at these writings reveals why they continue to resonate with audiences more than 150 years after the end of the conflict.

As supporting evidence for historical and biographical narratives and as deliberately designed communications, the writings discussed in this collection demonstrate considerable value. Whether exploring the differences among drafts and editions, listening closely to fluctuations in tone or voice, or tracing responses in private correspondence or published reviews, the essayists examine how authors wrote to different audiences and out of different motives, creating a complex literary record that offers rich potential for continuing evaluation of the country’s greatest national trauma.
Overall, the essays in Civil War Writing underscore how participants employed various literary forms to record, describe, and explain aspects and episodes of a conflict that assumed proportions none of them imagined possible at the outset.

About this title

About the Authors

Stephen Cushman is a poet and a scholar of American literature and the Civil War. His recent books include Hothead: A Poem and The Generals’ Civil War: What Their Memoirs Can Teach Us Today. He is the Robert C. Taylor Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

Gary W. Gallagher is John L. Nau III Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Virginia.

From the Back Cover

"Civil War Writing is an eclectic collection focusing on iconic Civil War texts. The contributors examine everything from classic recollections by famous generals to a largely fictitious memoir. The essays are without exception excellent, and several are true gems. Readers will learn much from the fascinating biographical details, perceptive psychological insight, and fine textual analysis. Here is a wonderfully readable and wide-ranging set of stimulating pieces written by top-notch scholars."--George C. Rable, author of Damn Yankees! Demonization and Defiance in the Confederate South

Edition details

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807170240
• ISBN 13: 9780807170243
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Cushman Stephen, Gallagher Gary W.