A study of the influence of South American culture on early American culture, in particular literature.

Introduction: ancient America in the postcolonial national imaginary; 1. Commencements: pre-Columbian worlds and Philip Freneau's literature of American empire; 2. Diplomacy: Joel Barlow's scripting and subscripting of ancient America; 3. Noctography: Prescott's sketchings of Aztecs and Incas; 4. Mutations: Melville, representation, and South American history; 5. Passage: two rivulets and the obscurity of American maps.