“Look Away . . . is one of the most stimulating books in Southern studies in recent years. It opens up the (U.S.) South to areas of inquiry that are fruitful and highly promising—and, indeed, at a time when the states of the ‘Late Confederacy’ are assuming an increasingly Latin flavor, it looks not only ‘away’ but to also to the future.” — Fred Hobson , Florida Historical Quarterly
“[A] thoughtful and important contribution to southern studies, New World studies, and inter-American studies. Most significantly, the volume offers readers an impressive critical intervention that promises to challenge the way that comparatists connect cultural identity and regional influence.”
— Sophia A. McClennen , Comparative Literature Studies
“[C]onsistently provocative. . . . Jon Smith and Deborah Cohn have assembled an impressive group of thinkers who, collectively, provide a detailed comparative literary history. . . .” — Will Brantley , Southern Literary Journal
“It is in the consideration of the meaning and place of race in society that Look Away! may be the most profound.” — Junius P. Rodriquez, Louisiana History
“Taken together, these essays tell us much about nationalism, racism, regionalism, and cultural identity in the Americas. . . . [I]t is a useful, stimulating, and thought-provoking collection that encourages new ways to perceive the often insular and parochial post-colonial south.” — Ralph Lee Woodward Jr. , Alabama Review
“There is much that is monumental both temporally and spatially about this volume. Apart from being 521 pages long, it clearly aims to be a multi-field or, better yet, transdisciplinary (re)defining endeavor.” — Maria DeGuzman , Mississippi Quarterly
“This is a rich collection of outstandingly innovative essays, wide-ranging and enlightening. . . . Look Away! is an indispensable aid to new understandings of a conflicted region.” — Faith Pullin , Journal of American Studies
"[T]he political readings are provocative, insightful, even brilliant. . . . [L]ikely to prove indispensable to literary critics."
— R. H. Solomon, Choice
"The collection's strength [is] its broad and eclectic scope. . . . Look Away succeeds in fleshing out the possibilities for postcolonial analyses of the U.S. South. . . ." — Julie M. Weise , Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History
“Look Away! is an important collection that expands the vocabularies and national symbol systems that scholars can deploy to think comparatively about the Americas. It is especially useful in breaking the binary between North and South that has so restricted southern literary and historical studies.” — Patricia Yaeger, author of Dirt and Desire: Reconstructing Southern Women’s Writing