Rituály souhlasu

This synthetic work of a leading Jewish-American literary and cultural historian focuses on the rise and transformation of “America” as a cultural symbol. The main asset of this book lies in an explanation of the transformation of the Calvinist interpretation of man’s fate (predestination to salvation or damnation) into an optimistic millennial myth of North America as the “promised land” for all immigrants and then the transformation of this myth into political and historical ideology at the time of the American Revolution and the French Revolution, later leading to accepting the “continual revolution” as a principle of American democracy (in George Bancroft’s historiography and Vernon Parrinton’s history of ideas). Bercovitch demonstrates that this ideological outcome of the development of American cultural symbolism significantly affected the evaluation of American literature. He does not merely aim at criticizing ideologies of Americanism. He indicates that American culture features a dialog between art and ideology, which is the basis of the American cultural identity.