Early American Literature: Canon Theory in a Transatlantic Context.

This article discusses the transatlantic dimension of early American writing as an important perspective for an understanding of the development of literary criticism and self-reflectivity in colonial America and the young United States. Similarities and differences vis-à-vis the British debates are analysed, with special emphasis being placed on the particularity of American literary production in the eighteenth century. The question of how literary value was defined discursively in the later eighteenth century is considered by exploring two exemplary mechanisms of literary selection; the anthology and the literary magazine, both of which were imported into American culture from Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]