Providence Tales and the Birth of American Literature

By elucidating the transatlantic literary conversation that took place between Britain and the North American colonies, Hartman has made a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarly writing that places issues in 'American' nation-formation not in the nineteenth century but squarely in the middle of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Anglo-American literary marketplace of ideas. This is an interesting and indeed splendid study in English colonial intellectual and literary history, and an important contribution to the study of American letters.

Providence Tales and the Birth of American Literature establishes James Hartman as an authority on an important American genre, the Indian captivity narrative, and on its importance for early American literature. Written with wonderful clarity and directness, the book reveals the roots of the captivity narrative in the style and themes of the English providence tale. Hartman's work nicely complements the largely gender- and race-based discussions of the captivity narrative that have recently proliferated.