The Columbia History of the American Novel

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The Columbia History of the American Novel

Emory Elliott, General Editor

Associate Editors Cathy N. Davidson Patrick O'Donnell Valerie Smith Christopher P. Wilson

Columbia University Press

New York

Columbia University Press

New York Oxford

Copyright © 1991 Columbia University Press

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Columbia history of the American novel / Emory Elliott , general editor; associate editors, Cathy N. Davidson ...[et al.].

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-231-07360-7 (alk. paper)

1. American fiction -- History and criticism. I. Elliott, Emory, 1942 -- II. Davidson, Cathy N., 1949 --

PS371.C7 1991

813.009 -- dc20 91-21598

CIP

1995

Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are Smyth-sewn and printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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The term is hard to translate. Roughly, it means the "con novel." "Transa" is a Mexicanism for a con-artist; the word probably derives from "transacción" (transaction) and referred originally to the transactions between hip middle-class urban youths and lower-class drug dealers in the late 1960s.