In Their Own Terms: American Literary Historiography in the United States and Italy (Studies on Themes and Motifs in Literature)

"In Their Own Terms is a contribution to cross-cultural forms of dialogue between non-American modes of analysis and US American literary studies. It is a look into American literary historiography that engages readers in analytical examinations of US literary histories considered landmarks in their field, from the early nineteenth-century work of Samuel L. Knapp to the newly completed Cambridge volumes. In Their Own Terms argues that American literary histories, regardless of the different critical and theoretical principles on which they are based, have invariably played an important role in national cohesion and in articulating an autonomy that is cultural as well as academic."--Jacket