Abstract: Greil Marcus and Werner Sollers' New Literary History of America from Harvard University Press sets a new paradigm for literary history writing in the aspects of style, organization and methodology. It has the following major features. First, it holds a literary view of culture vision. Therefore, the connotation of literature is expanded greatly and the boundary between literature and culture is blurred. Secondly, it embodies the principle of dedifferentiation in post-modernism culture. Thirdly, it advocates a constructional view on literary history. Fourthly, it disassembles the meta-narrative of an ontological history and emphasizes on the micro-narrative of history transection. Lastly, it values the investigation of literary acceptance. Examining the intellectual foundation of the concept of literary history in this book will enable a deeper understanding of its knowledge background and historical context.

Key words: A New Literary History of America, cultural studies, construction, micro-narrative, postmodernism