Arguing that limited nationalist perspectives have circumscribed the critical scope of American Studies scholarship, "Virtual Americas" advocates a comparative criticism that illuminates the work of well-known literary figures by defamiliarizing it placing it in unfamiliar contexts. Paul Giles looks at a number of canonical nineteenth- and twentieth-century American writers by focusing on their interactions with British culture. He demonstrates how American authors from Herman Melville to Thomas Pynchon have been compulsively drawn to negotiate with British culture so that their nationalist...