This volume offers an overview of key concepts and topics in English and American Studies. The contributors cover established areas of research, yet combine these with contemporary terms, methodologies and literary and cultural examples. They offer concrete analyses to demonstrate how to approach texts and cultural artefacts from innovative perspectives and employ conceptual tools and theories that have become central to the field. These include a range of recognized, and growing, research areas and topics: ‘genre theory’, the ‘spatial turn’, narratologies of time and experimental form, ‘poverty studies’, Marxist literary criticism, the New Historicism and many more. Contributions geared towards readers interested in didactics, specifically in how to bring innovative cultural-studies perspectives into language instruction, round out the spectrum of areas the volume covers. The book not only offers insight into current trends in research, but it also provides readers with points of reference within the diverse offerings and directions that comprise English and American Studies. It aims to assist students in their independent work – for instance, in the preparation of exam topics, term papers and final theses – and to motivate young scholars in choosing and developing research questions and interests to pursue within their academic careers.