REAL -Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature, Volume 19 (2003)

Recent movements in American literary and cultural studies, ranging from New Historicism and the New Americanists to various forms of race and gender studies, aim at a radical revision of our view of the historical role and contemporary significance of American culture. this revision raises several crucial questions: 1) the question whether new theories of American culture can be constructed from recent revisionary work; 2) the question in what relation these new theories stand to older theories of American culture based on ideas like democratic art or vernacular culture; 3) the question whether it is still possible to use specialized "local knowledge" for broader generalizations about American culture and society.