Ideology and Classic American Literature

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: beyond transcendence Myra Jehlen; Part I. Reassessments: 2. Symbol and idea in Virgin Land Henry Nash Smith; 3. Pastoralism in America Leo Marx; 4. Myth and the production of history Richard Slotkin; 5. American criticism left and right Gerald Graff; Part II. Perspectives: 6. The novel and the middle class in America Myra Jehlen; 7. Figurations for a new American literary history Houston A. Baker, Jr.; 8. American studies as a cultural program Alan Trachtenberg; 9. Reification and American literature Carolyn Porter; Part III. Texts: 10. Mysteries of the city: a reading of Poe's The Man of the Crowd Robert H. Byer; 11. The politics of The Scarlet Letter Jonathan Arac; 12. Sentimental power: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the politics of literary history Jane Tompkins; 13. Walden and the 'curse of trade' Michael T. Gilmore; Part IV. The Example of Melville: 14. Melville's economy of language Paul Royster; 15. Art, religion, and the problem of authority in Pierre Emory Elliott; 16. The hive of subtlety: 'Benito Cereno' and the liberal hero James H. Kavanagh; 17. Melville and cultural persuasion Donald E. Pease; 18. Afterword Sacvan Bercovitch; Selected bibliography; Index.