Michael Drescher analyzes national mythologies in American and German literature. He focuses on processes of mythological resignification, a literary phenomenon carrying significant implications for questions of identity, democracy, and nationalism in Europe and America. Precise narratological analyses are paired with detailed, transnational readings of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter , Gutzkow's Wally, die Zweiflerin , Brown's Clotel , and Heine's Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen . The study marries literature, mythology, and politics and contributes to the study of American and German literature at large.