In the decades following the American Revolution, literary and cultural discourses, but also American collective and individual identification were shaped by transatlantic relations and inter-American exchanges and conflicts. The way Americans defined themselves as a nation and as individuals was shaped by such historical events and social issues as the Haitian Revolution, the struggles for independence in Spanish America, ties with Caribbean slave economies, and rivalries with other colonial powers in the Americas. Contextualizing transatlantic and inter-American relations within a framework of the Western Hemisphere, the essays collected in this volume discuss inter-American relations in the early United States, and in American, European and Spanish-American writing of the period.

Gabriele Pisarz-Ramirez is Professor of American Studies and Minority Studies at Leipzig University (Germany). Her research interests and fields of publication include inter-American Studies, race and ethnicity (especially Latino/a Studies), transculturation, early American Studies, and 19th century popular literature. Markus Heide is Senior Lecturer of American Studies at the Swedish Institute for North American Studies (SINAS) at Uppsala University (Sweden). He has published monographs and essays on different issues in U.S.-Latino/a Studies and 19th century American literature, with a particular interest in inter-American relations.