During the height of the American literary “canon wars,” the major journal in the field, American Literature, published a series of articles on literary canons by leading scholars. The articles addressed a series of important questions about canon formation and representations of “America” from different critical and ideological viewpoints. The stature of the journal and of the contributing scholars enhanced the influence of the essays, which should be required readings for students and teachers investigating the literary “canon wars.”
American Literature: The State of the Art
A Letter from Professor Daniel Aaron
The History of the Study and Teaching of American Literature
American Things/Literary Things: The Problem of American Literary History
New Literary History: Past and Present
America as Canon and Context: Literary History in a Time of Dissensus
Literary History Without Sexism? Feminist Studies and Canonical Reconception
The Politics of Literary History
The New Orthodoxy: Ideology and the Institution of American Literary History
Southern Literature: Consensus and Dissensus
Demoting Hemingway: Feminist Criticism and the Canon
The Canon and the “Diminished Thing”