A leading figure in the debate over the literary canon, Jane Tompkins was one of the first to point to the ongoing relevance of popular women's fiction in the 19th century, long overlooked or scorned
With contributions by David Bleich, Jonathan Culler, Stanley Fish, Walker Gibson, Norman N. Holland, Wolfgang Iser, Walter Benn Michaels, Georges Poulet, Gerald Prince, and Michael Riffaterre.
Investigates the Western, a homegrown American literary genre, explaining the significance of its major elements: cattle, horses, desert landscapes, violence, death, and heroism, and contends that Wes
