Introduction -- The great(er) American paradigm: Moby-Dick and the Summa Americana -- From terra incognita to terra nostra: Carlos Fuentes's Reinvention of America -- Jacques Poulin's archival pathways: Volkswagen blues as discovery chronicle -- Leslie Marmon Silko's Council book: hemispheric forces in Almanac of the dead -- Greater America in the classroom: comparative literature, theory and praxis.