Early American Short Narratives: Developing a scholarly corpus of early forms of short narratives in American literature prior to 1800

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This research project aims at developing a scholarly corpus of early forms of short narratives in American literature prior to 1800. It responds to and extends previous research that has so far concentrated on isolated instances of short narration in American magazines between 1740 and 1820 by including narratives from colonial times and originally written in languages other than English. For example, German sources from the middle colonies will be systematically surveyed for the first time as well as stories adapted from French and English magazines. So far, scholars have mostly neglected or made only passing references to the various forms of colonial short narration that the project reviews and collects to show the multiple practices and sources of early American short narration as well as its role in shaping American literature. A critical edition and systematic survey of early American short narrative is therefore needed to offer a textual basis for further research in a transatlantic framework of American cultural and literary studies.