Abstract: Shirley Samuels is Professor of English and American Studies at Cornell University. Her research field is mainly the 19^th-century American literature and culture, with much emphasis on race and gender. She has been one of the leading scholars in “Literature and the Civil War” with extensive and seminal publications. Her focalized and representative publications on this topic include the following books and book chapters: Cultural Testimony and the Civil War (2020), Reading the American Novel 1780-1865 (2012), The Cambridge Companion to Abraham Lincoln (2012), Facing America: Iconography and the Civil War (2004), and “Literature and the Civil War” in A Companion to American Literature (2020), “Looking at Lincoln” in A History of American Civil War Literature (2016). In this interview, Professor Samuels introduced the transformations of the Civil War literature over the sesquicentennial history, with an emphasis on race, gender, and genre in its genealogy. She pointed out the deepening and new research on racial and slavery issue in recent decades. Meanwhile, she paid particular attention to the Civil War documenting and writings of women writers (including African American women writers), as well as the often-neglected genres such as diaries and slave narratives. Professor Samuels also suggested that the Civil War literature scholars turn their attention to the broader historical and cultural contexts of the whole 19^th-century United States and extend the borders of understanding Civil War literature.

Key words: American Civil War literature, race, gender, genre