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.

Michael Rodegang Drescher (Dr.) teaches American literature at the University of Heidelberg. His research interests include democracy and aesthetics, cognition, consciousness, and genre theory.