... , it was innovative in the sense that it introduced to American studies an intriguing thesis about the role of the pastoral topos in American culture and literature - although already following the footsteps of Henry Nash Smith and his analysis of the "Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth" (first published in 1950, walking in a slightly different direction). In chapter 1, Marx establishes his basic thesis: the ... conceptual definition is rather blurred, cf. p.4: "the region where literature, general ideas, and certain products of the collective imagination meet"). Literary ...

• Word Count: 821
• Approx Pages: 3

... , it was innovative in the sense that it introduced to American studies an intriguing thesis about the role of the pastoral topos in American culture and literature - although already following the footsteps of Henry Nash Smith and his analysis of the "Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth" (first published in 1950, walking in a slightly different direction). In chapter 1, Marx establishes his basic thesis: the ... conceptual definition is rather blurred, cf. p.4: "the region where literature, general ideas, and certain products of the collective imagination meet"). Literary ...

• Word Count: 790
• Approx Pages: 3