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This study of collective American memory exposes the historical phenomenon of self-directed American imperialism, still frequently ignored or denied in the United States, which, over 250 years of its history, has taken the form of African American slavery, thwarted black motherhood, same-race slavery (both white and African American) as well as extermination of indigenous American peoples. On the literary level, it helps to broaden, or even modify, the present perspective on the oeuvres of five major American writers, i.e., William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Cormac McCarthy, and Edward P. Jones by pointing to the intertwining of their themes, motifs, and techniques of writing to form an intricate pattern of intertextualized collective memory of the American nation.
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