The American Novel (Critical Survey of Long Fiction)
Origins
American literature turned to the subject of America after the Revolutionary War, when American authors began the exploration of themes and motifs distinctly American. Continuing the Puritan belief in America as the New Eden, American authors stressed the millennial nature of settlement and progress. Each milestone in improvement and enlargement marked a national movement toward spiritually sanctioned political dominion. Geographic, industrial, and social changes found justification in America’s mythic vision of itself independent of England and free of European...
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