Atlantic Republic: The American Tradition in English Literature

Atlantic Republic is a great book, and as the finale of his trilogy on the subject of British and American interrelations over the last 230 years, it is even greater and fully satisfying critical climax. (Daniel T. O'Hara, Modern Language Quarterly)

Giles's book is trenchant, unsettling and timely (Peter Conrad, The Observer)

The scope of Giles's study is prodigious, yet analytical depth is never sacrificed. (Allen Hibberd, American Literature)

The last of his trilogy of groundbreaking books in transatlantic studies...Much of the force of the book lies in the persistent emphasis on the "metacritical dimension" of its argument by critiquing the ways an "emollient stereotype" of the nation-state not only does little service to the historical experiences of writers but also continues to embalm the institutional parameters of English literature. (Year's Work in English Studies)

With its deft integration of political and literary history, this book is a major contribution to a growing field of work that views America as a mirror in which the English writer, and England itself, are newly configured.. .The focused, politically astute case studies of individual authors (both the expected protagonists and some surprising additions) are the most enjoyable sections of Atlantic Republic , but the book's real achievement is the network of connections built between them, and the firm infrastructure it establishes for thinking about the transatlantic dealings of writers not mentioned. (Alexandra Harris, Review of English Studies)

Atlantic Republic traces the legacy of the United States both as a place and as an idea in the work of English writers from 1776 to the present day. Seeing the disputes of the Reformation as a precursor to this transatlantic divide, it argues that America has operated since the Revolution as a focal point for various traditions of dissent within English culture. By ranging over writers from Richard Price and Susanna Rowson in the 1790s to Angela Carter and Salman Rushdie at the turn of the twenty-first century, the book argues that America haunts the English literary tradition as a parallel space where ideology and aesthetics are configured differently. Consequently, it suggests, many of the key episodes in British history-parliamentary reform in the 1830s, the imperial designs of the Victorian era, the twentieth-century conflict with fascism, the advance of globalization since 1980-have been shaped by implicit dialogues with American cultural models. Rather than simply reinforcing the benign myth of a 'special relationship', Paul Giles considers how various English writers over the past 200 years have engaged with America for various complicated reasons: its promise of political republicanism (Byron, Mary Shelley); its emphasis on religious disestablishment (Clough, Gissing); its prospect of pastoral regeneration (Ruxton, Lawrence); its vision of scientific futurism (Huxley, Ballard). The book also analyses the complex cultural relations between Britain and the United States around the time of the Second World War, suggesting that writers such as Wodehouse, Isherwood, and Auden understood the United States and Germany to offer alternative versions of the kind of technological modernity that appeared equally hostile to traditional forms of English culture. The book ends with a consideration of ways in which the canon of English literature might appear in a different light if seen from a transnational rather than a familiar national perspective.