Special Issue of Early American Literature–Translating Cultures: Key Texts in Multilingual Early American Studies

As recent work by scholars such as Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Sara E. Johnson, Patrick Erben, Sarah Rivett, and Jeffrey Einboden has shown, the print cultures and intellectual debates of early North America were deeply influenced by non-Anglophone writing. Studies of the emerging United States’ relationship to non-Anglophone textual traditions from outside its borders and non-English speaking groups within its own borders have begun to foreground German, French, Spanish, Indigenous, and Arabic-language literary presences. However, much of this work has proceeded so far in parallel strands rather than through interwoven exchanges of research. This special issue of Early American Literature seeks to foster a greater understanding of the intersections and distinctions between multilingual early American texts by bringing together scholars working on different linguistic traditions with a particular focus on the process of translation.

The aim of the issue is also recuperative. It expands the emerging canon of multilingual early American texts by recovering important, influential, and revealing examples of literary translations of non-Anglophone works in early American culture and early American literary works in translation. To highlight both the expansive diversity of multilingual North American literature and these recuperative dimensions, we’re asking for brief essays (3000 words) that provide an analysis of a single text as a case study. In soliciting short essays highlighting issues related to the translation and circulation of European, Indigenous, Arabic and North American texts, we seek to establish a fuller picture of the lines of multilingual textual circulation that tied North America to continental America, Europe, and elsewhere in the world, and outline the dense network of agents involved in circulating and translating non-Anglophone literature up to 1830.

Through their concise case studies of single texts, we encourage contributors to consider broader questions such as:

What role did texts originally published in non-English languages play in print culture in the North American colonies and the newly founded US?
Where and how was Anglophone North American literature translated into other languages?
How did these literary translations circulate and what was their impact?
What evolving forms of cultural authority or cultural marginalization were attached to different languages in North America over time?
How do familiar historiographic questions in our field (e.g., republicanism, natural rights, nation-formation) look different when we examine non-English texts?

Possible areas of focus may include but are not limited to the following:

Multilingual examples of specific literary genres (fiction, poetry captivity narratives, political texts, educational works, religious texts, travel/exploration accounts, natural history) and their transformation and adaptation across languages
The role of audiences and reception history in relation to specific immigrant and/or multilingual communities in the North American colonies or early US (German, Dutch, French, Spanish, etc.)
The role and experiences of translators, publishers, and distributors in generating non-Anglophone print cultures in the long eighteenth century
Translations of North American/US texts directed toward specific countries or language communities in Europe (Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria-Hungary, etc.) and vice versa
The translation and appropriation of Indigenous American languages in non-Anglophone contexts
The importance of Arabic, French, German, and Spanish for recovering early enslaved voices

Application Deadline

May 1, 2026

Application Instructions and Contact

Abstracts (300 words) identifying the text to be studied and central argument are due May 1, 2026.

Please email abstracts to Keri Holt, keri.holt@usu.edu; Len Von Morzé, leonard.vonmorze@umb.edu; and Matthew Pethers, matthew.pethers@nottingham.ac.uk.

If your abstract is accepted, completed essay submissions (3000 words) would be due December 15, 2026, after which they will go through EAL’s standard peer review process.

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