The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New Orleans - T.R. Johnson

This Cambridge Companion offers a rich range of contexts for studying the literary histories of New Orleans. Some of the essays�offer a deep focus on the significance of iconic figures such as Tennessee Williams,�William Faulkner, and Kate Chopin. Other essays detail long traditions of writing not widely known beyond the�city but that complicate our understanding of American literary history in new ways, as in the chapters on queer�writers or Mardi Gras or the Asian presence in the city's literary imagination or how deadly nineteenth-century epidemics continue to shape the ways the world has come to read the city as a capital of Gothic horror fiction. These fresh perspectives on one of the most storied cities in the world are an essential resource for those�who seek to piece together their own understanding of New Orleans as an historic and�living flashpoint in the global literary imagination.