Due to environmental pollution, energy consumption, climate change and other reasons, the Chinese government proposed the “double carbon” goal to encourage the wide application of green technology. The green technology represented by CiteSpace has brought new ideas to the traditional study of American literature, which is conducive to energy conservation and emission reduction and the sustainable progress of scientific research. With the help of CiteSpace tool, this paper traces the hot spots and frontiers in the field of American literature research. Through the visualization research of knowledge map of green technology, we get valuable conclusions: first, the domestic research of American literature has gradually evolved from scattered stage to mature stage. Famous scholars such as Yukuo Wang, Ruoxi Pu, Li Jin, Jincai Yang and Ying Liu have emerged. And they have made landmark achievements in feminist criticism, historical context, new slave narrative, racial discrimination, spatial turn and so on. Second, the research object is diverse and rich, and the mainstream and tributaries blend. It includes ethnic groups such as Chinese and African Americans. It focuses on writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Faulkner, Melville, Whitman and Hemingway, including “intertextuality”, “tea culture”, “ecocriticism” and “Orientalism”. Third, although the current research on American literature is fruitful, the discrete and multivariate distribution of specific topics is significant. The use of green technology has brought new impetus to the study of traditional literature, greatly improved the efficiency of scientific research and reduced resource consumption.