{"product_id":"oriental-shadows-jim-egan-9780814256275","title":"Oriental Shadows: The Presence of the East in Early American Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003eThrough the use of several iconic early American authors (Anne Bradstreet, James Kirkpatrick, Benjamin Franklin, and Edgar Allan Poe), Jim Egan's \u003ci\u003eOriental Shadows: The Presence of the\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eEast in Early American Literature\u003c\/i\u003e explores the presence of \"the East\" in American writing.\u003c\/p\u003e The specter of the East haunted the literature of colonial British America and the new United States, from the earliest promotional pamphlets to the most aesthetically sophisticated works of art of the American Renaissance. Figures of Persia, China, Arabia, and other Oriental people, places, and things played crucial roles in many British American literary works, serving as key images in early American writers' efforts to demonstrate that early American culture could match-and perhaps even surpass-European standards of refinement. These writers offered the East as a solution to America's perceived inferior civilized status by suggesting that America become more civilized not by becoming more European but instead by adopting aesthetic styles and standards long associated with an East cast as superior aesthetically to both America and Europe. \u003cbr\u003e In bringing to light this largely overlooked archive of images within the American literary canon, \u003ci\u003eOriental Shadows\u003c\/i\u003e suggests that the East played a key role in the emergence of a distinctively American literary tradition and, further, that early American identity was born as much from figures of the East as it was from the colonists' encounters with the frontier.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jim Egan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0814256279\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780814256275\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Ohio State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/09\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 182\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.42d","brand":"Jim Egan","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48435702497535,"sku":"9780814256275","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_45df7f2b-c6bf-46f9-8c26-f1c4e5e4f7ae.jpg?v=1777152133","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/oriental-shadows-jim-egan-9780814256275","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}