The relationship between literature and culture is described here in terms of an ecologically defined functional model of literary texts. Fictional texts are not only sensors identifying questionable cultural developments and hence representing an indispensable medium for cultural criticism. In addition, they are loci for the renewal of cultural creativity. The first part of the book supplies the theoretical substantiation for this approach and develops it into a fully-fledged literary ecology in the framework of present-day tendencies. The second part demonstrates the plausibility and sustaining power of the approach with reference to six representative American novels from different periods.