Early American Short Narratives

DFG Funded Research Project “Early American Short Narratives: Erschließen eines Korpus kurzer Erzählformen in der amerikanischen Literatur vor 1800″
(SCHE1616-5-1; Initial Funding 01/2011-02/2013; Extended Funding 02/2014)

Director: Prof. Dr. Oliver Scheiding

The project analyzes early forms of short narration in American literature prior to 1800. Building on previous research, which has concentrated on texts from literary magazines between 1740 and 1820, the project extends its scope to the colonial period (17th and early 18th centuries) as well. Along with short prose in English, multilingual sources from the colonial and early national period will be included and surveyed systematically for the first time. While research has so far widely neglected or made only passing references to the various forms of colonial short narration, the project aims at demonstrating the multiple practices of brevity and the business behind them. A critical edition and systematic survey of early American short narrative will offer a textual basis for further research on writing practices and magazine literature.

Oliver Scheiding and Martin Seidl, eds. Worlding America: A Transnational Anthology of Short Narratives before 1800. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014.