Kategoria BISAC: Literary Criticism >> American - General

African American fugitive slave narratives are receiving growing amounts of attention for their literary and historical value. This book examines the techniques the slave narrative writers used to authorize and rhetorically create themselves in their writings. By examining such issues as voice and identity formation, the volume demonstrates how identity may be seen as a cultural fabrication. Former slave narrators used a series of masking and doubling techniques to address their experiences as African Americans. This book crosses the boundaries between literary criticism and historical...

Much can be learned about both the historic and human impact of war by studying the literary output associated with the time period during and immediately after the event. This casebook help students build bridges between WWI history and the fictional accounts provided by such works as All Quiet on the Western Front, A Farewell to Arms, and A Son at the Front. For each work, insightful analysis and historical contextualization is provided. This unique casebook approach adds another layer of understanding for readers by relating the fiction to primary documents...

Mark Twain's legacy is an extensive canon of writings that includes some of the most widely read, staged, debated, reinterpreted, and filmed works ever. This introductory critical study helps students and general readers appreciate the myriad perspectives of the man, his life, and his contributions to American literature. A fresh biographical account traces Twain's colorful life through his varied careers and adventures, to his rise to national prominence as a writer of short stories, to the creation of masterpieces like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Also examined are the...

From the Middle Ages to the close of the 17th century, alchemy was fundamental to Western culture, as scores of experimenters sought to change lead into gold. Though its significance declined with the rise of chemistry, alchemy continued to captivate the imagination of writers and its images still appear in modern creative works. This book examines the literary representation of alchemical theory and the metaphor of alchemical regeneration in the works of Edward Taylor, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller.

While Taylor used alchemical metaphors to illustrate the...

The works of Louisiana authors differ from the works of other Southern writers in significant ways. Strong French, Spanish, Native American, and African American traditions shaped Louisiana culture, and Louisiana writers reflect that cultural diversity in their works. So too, historical and religious influences caused Louisiana to develop in a distinct way, and these influences have similarly affected Louisiana writers. The narrative styles employed by these writers generally differ from the styles of other Southern authors. While contemporary Louisiana writers have contributed a...

Always controversial, Tom Wolfe's writings inarguably have had enduring cultural impact through the decades, starting with his short stories in the 1960s and the publication of his first nonfiction novel, "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test"(1968). This book offers the fullest treatment of Wolfe's life and literary output available to date, with full analysis of his major works including "The Right Stuff" (1979), "The Bonfire of the Vanities" (1987), and his most recent novel "A Man in Full"(1999). With insightful historical perspectives to Wolfe's literary and cultural contributions, this...

With a career spanning 50 years, Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most prolific and popular American writers of the 20th century. Though his works have often met with mixed reviews, and have been difficult to categorize, his status of cultural icon and one of the most important contemporary novelists is well established. This critical companion, perfect for students, skillfully guides readers through seven of Vonnegut's most important novels including Player Piano (1952), Mother Night (1961), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Slaughterhouse Five (1969). A full chapter is...

This book guides readers through these and other important Steinbeck works, particularly those that are most often taught, including The Pearl (1945), The Red Pony (1933), and significant short fiction. Clear analysis of each work includes discussions of character development, plot and setting, thematic treatment, historical contexts, and alternate critical readings. A biographical chapter, as well as an examination of the author's contributions and career, helps readers gain a sense of Steinbeck the man and his position as one of America's most important...

Traditionally, the carnival mode in Europe offers a suspension of time and ordinary social conventions; however, through the presentation and representation of that which is deemed exotic and unconventional, American carnival proposes an alternative landscape. While other authors have generally focused on European manifestations of the carnival, McGowan identifies and analyzes a particularly American form of the carnival, which systematically operates to codify race and space within the United States. Through an analysis of overt carnival forms, such as minstrel shows, World's Fairs, and...

Realistic writers seek to render accurate representations of the world, and their novels contain authentic details and descriptions of their characters and settings. Like Realistic authors, Naturalistic ones similarly try to portray the world accurately, but they tend to depict the darker side of life. Realism was born in Europe in the nineteenth century and soon became popular in the United States, while Naturalism became prominent at the beginning of the twentieth century. Both traditions have continued in one form or another to the present day, and Realistic and Naturalistic novelists...

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is commonly regarded as the leading author of supernatural fiction in the 20th century. He is distinctive among writers in having a tremendous popular following as well as a considerable and increasing academic reputation as a writer of substance and significance. This encyclopedia is an exhaustive guide to many aspects of Lovecraft's life and work, codifying the detailed research on Lovecraft conducted by many scholars over the past three decades. It includes hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries on Lovecraft and presents extensive bibliographical...

For decades now literary critics have universally praised Faulkner as one of the greatest writers of the modern era, yet students assigned to read his novels in university, college, and high school classes continue to struggle to make sense of his convoluted plots, prolix style, and complex characterizations. The broadest treatment to date of a topic of increasing concern, this book is designed to provide fresh strategies and practical suggestions for the classroom study of several of Faulkner's finest novels and stories, including "The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom , Light in...

Although best known as a poet, Adrienne Rich is a versatile critic and a gifted writer of nonfiction and critical theory. Writing in the oracular tradition of Whitman and Dickinson, she affirms the will to change as an enduring commitment in her life and poetry.One of America's most outspoken literary figures, her courage in speaking out against injustice in the United States and worldwide has earned her the kind of international political following few American poets enjoy. This book is a much-needed comprehensive study of her life and career. It covers the full progression of her poetry...

Winner of the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and specifically cited by the Swedish Academy when Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, "The Old Man and the Sea" remains one of the author's most beloved works. This casebook helps readers interpret and appreciate the thematic concerns of the novel, as well as the contextual issues it explores.

Topic chapters provide information on Cuba, including its natural geography, sociopolitical history, and the ethnic background of its people. A wide variety of primary documents such as interviews and articles, along with charts...

For a century, Theodore Dreiser has represented for many readers a rebellious modernism whose novels both critiqued the American dream and embodied a bleakly deterministic perception of life. His first novel, "Sister Carrie" (1900), was reluctantly published and then ignored by its publisher, who thought the book immoral. Another publisher withdrew his fifth novel, "The Genius" (1915), rather than face prosecution on obscenity charges. Dreiser did not enjoy widespread popularity and critical acclaim until his masterpiece, "An American Tragedy," appeared in 1925. This reference is an...

Wagner-Martin, a respected scholar of American modernism and former president of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society, offers a comprehensive guide to the novel's genesis, plot, background, themes, style, and critical reception. Each chapter overviews a significant element of the novel and includes thorough documentation. A bibliographic essay is also included.

A landmark of American literature, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms (1929) is one of the most widely read and studied novels of the 20th century. Written by a respected scholar of American modernism and...

One of the most accomplished American writers of the early 20th century, Edith Wharton achieved both critical recognition and popular acclaim. This "Student Companion" provides an introduction to Wharton's fiction. Beginning with her life and career, the volume places Wharton in the context of her times, focusing on how she was shaped by the culture of wealth and privilege into which she was born. Her struggle to resist the demands of her social world paralleled her characters' lives and contributed to the power of her writing. Included are an in-depth discussion of her writing, along with...

Lafcadio Hearn was a prolific 19th-century writer with diverse experiences. He was born in Greece; educated in Ireland, France, and England; and thereafter resided in the United States, the French West Indies, and Japan. He is best known for his nonfiction, primarily his essays and newspaper columns, though he also wrote numerous stories that drew on the lore of different cultures. But he will always be remembered as the American writer who first wrote extensively about Japan and made Asiatic culture accessible to British and American readers. This reference is a comprehensive guide to...

Having endured an initially frigid critcal reception, personal struggles with addiction, and a mid-life accident that nearly killed him, Stephen King continues to reign as perhaps the most popular and prolific writer in America. This new edition of the critical companion to his works includes an expanded biographical chapter, featuring King's return to writing after his accident and his groundbreaking experiments in e-publishing. A full chapter is devoted to each of his eight most recently published works of fiction, offering thorough critical treatments of

"Desperation" (1996)

"The...