Why? Simply because I am interested in the past? No, if one means by that writing a history of the past in terms of the present. Yes, if one means writing the history of the present. Michel Foucault

We usually think of academic disciplines as associated with particular subject matters, defined worlds of objects that academic fields more or less successfully seek to represent as knowledge. Members of the profession and the public at large normally think about" American literature" as the novels, poems, plays, and some special works of nonfiction prose written by Americans, things to be investigated, studied, interpreted, like other things. We are most of the time convinced that American literature has as much an independent existence as a rock or tree. It is the premise of this book that although it is possible to think of all of the writing in certain genres produced in the United States as" American literature," the term in critical or scholarly practice has never meant that. Rather," American literature" has always meant a small selection of writings produced in this country. When we think of American literature we are unlikely to think of Ben Hur or Deadwood Dick in Leadville, but we are likely to think of The Great Gatsby or Moby-Dick. Moreover, what has counted as American literature has changed. In 1900, Moby-Dick would not have been recognized by many as American literature; those who