Sandra M. Gustafson recently argued that the literary history of the two decades between 1815 and 1835 “are a kind of temporal gap or aporia” between the writings of the revolutionary era and those of the antebellum period. This proposed panel explores methods of thinking about and through this blind spot of American literary history. How might we begin to write the literary history of this period? How are written or oral modes like political speeches, sermons, or historical writing implicated in the literary discourse that arises during the Jacksonian era? To what extent do the distinctive challenges (geographical, economic, social, political, and artistic) that faced this generation of writers shape their definition of national and individual identity?

Please submit a proposal of no longer than 500 words as an e-mail attachment to Christopher Apap at [ccapap@hotmail.com] by January 4, 2008.