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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
Surprisingly, two of the most influential theorists of American literature have been a French sociologist and a transplanted English poet: Alexis de Tocqueville and W. H. Auden. In teaching American literature and intellectual history, especially in respect to the political novel, I have found myself engaged in a critical dialogue with their closely associated views. Permit me to explain by beginning with a small piece of autobiography.
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