The texts on this list are arranged chronologically, because I want to consider this project primarily as a historical one: to track the development of U.S. culture over the past 150-odd years. For this reason, as well, I haven't separated fiction from nonfiction primary sources.

Of course, this list is still clearly tilted toward the "canon" of U.S. Literature. I don't mean to assume that following the development of American "literature" is the same thing as following the development of American "culture." But a primary purpose of this list is professional: to master a body of knowledge shared by professors of American Literature. I hope, in the process, to critically investigate the genealogy of the American canon; for this reason, Iíve included a selection of secondary sources on the history - and historiography - of American literature.

I have also augmented the canonical works by including alongside them less ìliteraryî but historically significant best-sellers, manuals, and manifestoes. In addition, I have included representatives of several popular genres, including science fiction, mystery, the sentimental novel, and comic books. And to extend the scope of my discussion beyond the printed word, Iíve added a selection of works in the history of mass culture.

Below are some examples of questions Iím interested in asking. Iíve purposely phrased them broadly, to display the basic outlines of my concerns. If more specific phrasing would be helpful, Iíd be happy to break these down into more narrowly focused questions.

On Canons

• Trace the history of the American literary canon. What accounts for changes in the canon in different historical periods? Why have specific authors lost or gained stature at particular historical moments? What relationships exist between the literary canon, the book marketplace, and the academic discipline of American literature?

• Compare the academic canon of American literature to parallel American cultural discourses. These parallel traditions include:
• African-American literature, Jewish-American literature, and other ethnic traditions
• Proletarian literature, feminist literature, and other traditions of protest
• The books and stories most often taught in American elementary and secondary schools
• Popular genres such as science fiction, mystery, and comic books
• Nonliterary forms such as music, film, and television.

On Mass Culture

• Assess the impact of technological innovation and economic development on the history of mass culture. What accounts for the success of new media at certain moments?

• How have American artists and intellectuals responded to the rise of mass culture? How has their response changed at different historical moments? What effects has their engagement had on the course of mass culture?

• Discuss the role of race in American literature, contrasting works in the traditional American canon with works in the African-American canon. Address also the relationship between American literary discourse on race and representations of race in American popular culture and politics.

• One ongoing tension in American literature has been between the desire to push the boundaries of artistic form, and the goal of accessibly reaching a general audience - and making a living. Trace this conflict through the history of American literature from 1840 to the present.

• A similar tension has often been described between ìartî and ìpolitics.î Discuss the tradition of American political literature (and film, music, etc.), and the conflicts over the intersection of politics and aesthetics.

pre-1840 Rowson, Susanna Charlotte Temple (1791)

Foster, Hannah The Coquette (1797)

1840s Poe, Edgar Allen (selections)

1840s Emerson, Ralph Waldo (selections)

1845 Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

1850 Warner, Susan The Wide, Wide World

1850/51 Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter

The House of the Seven Gables

1851 Melville, Herman Moby Dick

1852 Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin

1853 Brown, William Wells Clotel, or the President's Daughter

1854 Thoreau, Henry David Walden

1855 Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass

1859 Wilson, Harriet Our Nig

1861 Jacobs, Harriet Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

1867 Alger, Horatio Ragged Dick

1868 Alcott, Louisa May Little Women

1878/86 James, Henry "Daisy Miller"

"The Turn of the Screw"

1880s Harris, Joel Chandler (selections)

1884 Twain, Mark Huckleberry Finn

1885 Howells, William Dean The Rise of Silas Lapham

1888 Bellamy, Edward Looking Backward 2000-1887

1890 Riis, Jacob How the Other Half Lives

1892 Gillman, Charlotte P. ìThe Yellow Wallpaperî

1893 Turner, Frederick Jackson "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"

1893/95 Crane, Stephen Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

The Red Badge of Courage

1899 Chesnutt, Charles ìThe Wife of His Youthî

1899 Chopin, Kate The Awakening

1899 Veblen, Thorstein The Theory of the Leisure Class (selections)

1900 Baum, L. Frank The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

1900/25 Dreiser, Theodore Sister Carrie

An American Tragedy

1901 Norris, Frank The Octopus

1903 DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk

1905 London, Jack White Fang

1906 Henry, O. The Four Million

1906 Sinclair, Upton The Jungle

1907 Adams, Henry "The Virgin and the Dynamo"

1911 Taylor, Fredric Winslow The Principles of Scientific Management

1912 Johnson, James Weldon The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man

1913 Cather, Willa Oh Pioneers!

1914 Burroughs, Edgar Rice Tarzan of the Apes

1916 Dewey, John Democracy and Education

1917 Cahan, Abraham The Rise of David Levinsky

1919 Anderson, Sherwood Winesburg, Ohio

1920 Wharton, Edith The Age of Innocence

1922 Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt

1923 Toomer, Jean Cane

1924-27 Mencken, H.L. (selections)

1925 Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby

1925 Yezierska, Anatolia The Bread Givers

1926 Lardner, Ring The Love Nest and Other Stories

1926 Hemingway, Earnest The Sun Also Rises

1928/29 Larsen, Nella Quicksand

Passing

1929 Lynd, Robert and Helen Middletown

1929 Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury

1930s Herriman, George Krazy Kat (selections)

1930 Gold, Michael Jews Without Money

1931 Hammett, Dashiel The Glass Key

1932-35 Farrell, James T. Studs Lonigan (selections)

1933 Stein, Gertrude The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

1933/39 West, Nathaniel Day of theLocust

Miss Lonelyhearts

1934 Hughes, Langston The Ways of White Folk

1934 Roth, Henry Call It Sleep

1936 Mitchell, Margaret Gone With the Wind

1937 Hurston, Zora Neale Their Eyes Were Watching God

1939 Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath

1940 Chandler, Raymond Farewell, My Lovely

1940 Wright, Richard Native Son

1941 Luce, Henry ìThe American Centuryî

1941 Agee, J. and W. Evans Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

1941 Schulberg, Budd What Makes Sammy Run?

1942-53 Asimov, Isaac Foundation Trilogy

1946 Warren, Robert Penn All the Kingís Men

1948/57 Mailer, Norman The Naked and the Dead

"The White Negro"

1949 Miller, Arthur Death of a Salesman

1950 Bradbury, Ray The Martian Chronicles

1951 Salinger, J.D. Catcher in the Rye

1952 Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man

1952 Malamud, Bernard The Natural

1955 Nabokov, Vladmir Lolita

1955 Keroac, Jack On the Road

1955 Heller, Joseph Catch-22

1955 O'Connor, Flannery A Good Man Is Hard to Find

1956 Bellow, Saul Seize the Day

1956 Ginsburg, Allen Howl

1959 Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch

1960s Kirby, Jack (selections)

1960s Crumb, R. (selections)

1960 Updike, John Rabbit, Run

1960 Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird

1961 Heinlein, Robert A. Stranger in a Strange Land

1962 Dick, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle

1963 Baldwin, James The Fire Next Time

1963 Friedan, Betty The Feminine Mystique

1963 McCarthy, Mary The Group

1963 Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar

1964 Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X

1964 McLuhan, Marshall Understanding Media

1966 Pynchon, Thomas The Crying of Lot 49

1967 Styron, William The Confessions of Nat Turner

1967 Sontag, Susan ìNotes on Campî

1969 LeGuin, Ursula K The Left Hand of Darkness

1969 Roth, Philip Portnoy's Complaint

1970 Millett, Kate Sexual Politics

1971 Doctrow, E.L. Ragtime

1971 Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

1972 Reed, Ishmael Mumbo Jumbo

1973 Jong, Erica Fear of Flying

1973 Vonnegut, Kurt Breakfast of Champions

1978 King, Steven The Stand

1979 Didion, Joan The White Album

1982 Gibson, William Neuromancer

1982 Walker, Alice The Color Purple

1984 Delany, Samuel Stars in My Pockets Like Grains of Sand

1984 McInerney, Jay Bright Lights, Big City

1985 Delillo, Don White Noise

1985 Ellis, Brett Easton Less Than Zero

1986 Speigelman, Art Maus

1986 Pekar, Harvey American Splendor

1987 Wolfe, Tom Bonfire of the Vanities

1988 Morrison, Toni Beloved

1988 Acker, Kathy Empire of the Senseless

1991 Grisham, John The Firm

1992 Stephenson, Neal Snowcrash

1993 Robinson, Kim Stanley Red Mars

1995 Coupland, Douglas Microserfs

1995 Powers, Richard Galatea 2.2
 
 

Business

Beniger, James The Control Revolution

Chandler, Alfred The Visible Hand

Publishing and Popular Fiction

Aldiss, Brian Trillion-Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction

Bukatman, Scott Terminal Identity

Denning, Michael Machine Accents

Lears, T. Jackson No Place of Grace

Marchand, Roland Advertising the American Dream

McCloud, Scott Understanding Comics

Ohmann, Richard The Politics of Letters

Radway, Janice Reading the Romance

Rubin, Joan Shelly The Making of the Middlebrow

Leisure and Popular Theater

Allen, Robert Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture

Erenberg, Louis Steppin' Out

Harris, Neil Cultural Excusions

Kasson, John Amusing the Millions

Leach, William Land of Desire

Levine, Laurence Highbrow/Lowbrow

Lott, Eric Love and Theft

Nye, Russell The Unembarassed Muse

Peiss, Kathy Cheap Amusements

Film

Jenkins, Henry What Made Pistachio Nuts?

Schatz, Thomas The Genius of the System

Willliams, Linda Hard Core

Radio

Ely, Melvin The Adventures of Amos and Andy

Television

Barnau, Eric Tube of Plenty

Douglas, Susan Where the Boys Are

Spiegel, Lynn Make Room for TV

Music

Bangs, Lester Pyschotic Reactions and Carbourator Dung

Marcus, Greil Mystery Train

Literary History

Elliott, Emory, ed. The Columbia Literary History of the United States

The Columbia History of the American Novel

Fiedler, Leslie Love and Death in the American Novel

Kazin, Alfred On Native Grounds

Mattheissen, F.O. The American Renaissance

On Race and Ethnicity

Carby, Hazel V. Reconstructing Womanhood

Fishkin, Shelley Fisher Was Huck Black?

Gates, Henry Louis The Signifying Monkey

Morrison, Toni Playing in the Dark

Sollors, Werner Beyond Ethnicity

Sundquist, Eric J. To Wake the Nations

On Politics and Technology

Bantha, Martha Taylored Lives

Foley, Barbara Radical Representations

Kaplan, Amy The Social Construction of American Realism

Michaels, Walter Benn The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism

Selzer, Mark Bodies and Machines

Tichi, Cecelia Shifting Gears

Warner, Michael Letters of the Republic

Historiography

Berube, Michael Marginal Forces/Cultural Centers

Graff, Gerald Professing Literature

Guillory, John Cultural Capital

Reising, Russell The Unusable Past

Ross, Andrew No Respect

Shumway, David Creating American Civilization

Tompkins, Jane Sensational Designs

Watkins, Evan Work Time