The Inadvertent Epic: From Uncle Tom's Cabin to Roots by Leslie A. Fiedler

This book contends that there's a female, domestic tradition in American literature that critics ignore or dismiss at their peril. Fiedler traces this tradition from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Dixon's The Leopard's Spots and The Clansman (and Birth of a Nation) to Gone With the Wind (both the novel and the movie) and ending with Alex Haley's Roots. This book still seems representative of an older form of criticism (more observations than quotations and little direct engagement with a broader critical conversation). I appreciate Fiedler's attempts to reopen and redefine the literary canon, though I'm not sure he gets there with this book.