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The essays in this volume examine aspects of the ever-changing American imaginary over the last two centuries from the cultural perspectives of the present age, in which transnational approaches have vigorously challenged American Exceptionalist narratives.

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The essays in this volume examine aspects of the ever-changing American imaginary over the last two centuries from the cultural perspectives of the present age, in which transnational approaches have vigorously challenged American exceptionalist narratives. It is a time in which uncertainties and reappraisals of group and national identity, both within the US and abroad, are part of the framework of a comprehensive field of research for scholars in American Studies, in the social sciences and the humanities alike. While situated in the current tumultuous century, the contributors of this volume focus on specific issues of the US defining and redefining itself from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

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Transatlantic, transnational and transcultural contexts - Identity and national allegiance - Sites of worlding - Trauma and fantasy in American fiction - The American Imaginary - Popular culture - The counterculture

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Adina Ciugureanu is Professor of British and American Studies at Ovidius University Constanta, Romania. Her research and publications focus on aspects related to the nineteenth-century Victorianism, twentieth-century American and British Modernism, feminist studies and popular culture. Eduard Vlad is Professor of American Studies at Ovidius University, Constanta. His interests and publications range from literary and cultural studies to identity theory and globalization studies. Nicoleta Stanca is Associate Professor of Irish and American Studies at Ovidius University, Constanta. She has published books and articles on Irish-American identity and popular culture.

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