Review of Crisscrossing Borders in Literature of the American West edited by Reginald Dyck and Cheli Reutter

Authors

Linda K. Karell, Montana State University

Date of this Version

Fall 2010

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly 30:4 (Fall 2010).

Comments

Copyright © 2010 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.

Abstract

With its uninspired Pepto-Bismol pink-colored cover, Crisscrossing Borders in the Literature of the American West might escape attention. That would be a loss because this new collection, edited by Reginald Dyck and Cheli Reutter, is a striking series of essays that simultaneously argue for and model new postnational and transnational approaches to western literary studies. In the introduction, Dyck asks, "Is it possible to have a western literary studies that recognizes the many forms of difference that create borders within and around the region while neither reifying those borders nor discounting their power?" The strategies employed by the various authors suggest that it is-with promising (although not necessarily comforting) examinations of unexpected examples of western literatures.