Womens Narratives of the Early Americas and the Formation of Empire [Hardcover]

The essays in this collection examine the connections between the forces of empire and women's lives in the early Americas, in particular the ways their narratives contributed to empire formation. Focusing on the female body as a site of contestation, the essays describe acts of bravery, subversion, and survival expressed in a variety of genres, including the saga, letter, diary, captivity narrative, travel narrative, verse, sentimental novel, and autobiography. The volume also speaks to a range of female experience, across the Americas and across time, from the Viking exploration to early nineteenth-century United States, challenging scholars to reflect on the implications of early American literature even to the present day.

Speaking to the range of female experience during Early America, this rich collection conveys the acts of bravery, protest, and survival of women that contributed to the formation of an empire. Letters, diaries, and narratives, among other texts, serve as the point of entry into the overlooked topic of the female body as a site of contestation.

Preface; Mary McAleer Balkun and Susan C. Imbarrato
Introduction; Marion Rust
1. Gudrid Thorbjornsd?ttir: First Foremother of American Empire; Annette Kolodny
2. Ungendering Empire: Catalina de Erauso and the Performance of Masculinity; Cathy Rex
3. Creole Civic Pride and Positioning Exceptional Black Women; Joan Bristol and Tamara Harvey
4. Imposing Order: Sarah Kemble Knight's Journal and the Anglo-American Empire; Ann M. Brunjes
5. The Midwife's Calling: Martha Ballard's Diary and the Empire of Medical Knowledge in the Early Republic; Thomas Lawrence Long
6. The Birth Pangs of the American Mother: Puritanism, Republicanism, and the Letter-Journal of Esther Edwards Burr; Samantha Cohen Tamulis
7. Empire and the Pan-Atlantic Self in The Female American; or, the Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield; Denise Mary MacNl{