"Growing numbers of recent critics, loosely affiliated as New Americanists, assert that no distinction between the romance and the novel existed in America prior to Hawthorne and that romance theory is a largely twentieth-century invention. They seek to dislodge the authority of post-World War II critics - especially Richard Chase in his powerful 1957 framing of romance theory - broadly charging distortion of history and irresponsible sociopolitical evasion. In this new study, G. R. Thompson and Eric Carl Link offer a possible "neutral ground" of inquiry, upon which at-odds "presentist" and "historicist" thinking may meet to mutual benefit."--BOOK JACKET. "Thompson and Link energetically chart a transforming course toward more meaningful critical dialogue while providing practical general guidance through the crosscurrents of contemporary literary-critical-cultural debates."--BOOK JACKET.