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.