American Novel Now

1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4051-6755-0
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 365 g

The American Novel Now navigates the vast terrain of the American novel since 1980, exploring issues of identity, history, family, nation, and aesthetics, as well as cultural movements and narrative strategies from over seventy different authors and novels.
- Discusses an exceptionally wide-range of authors and novels, from established figures to significant emerging writers
- Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Louise Erdrich, Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Kathy Acker and many more
- Explores the range of themes and styles offered in the wealth of contemporary American fiction since 1980, in both mainstream and experimental writings
- Reflects the liveliness and diversity of American fiction in the last thirty years
- Written in a style that makes it ideal for students and scholars, while also accessible for general readers

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Donnell, Patrick

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Deutsche Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface viii

Acknowledgments xii

Part I: Before 1980 1

Part II: From New Realisms to Postmodernism 34

“This American Life” 35

“Dirty Realisms” 46

Only Wor(l)ds 56

Magnifying Reality, Multiplying Genre 67

Part III: Becoming Identities 80

Reinventing Character 82

Racing Identity 92

Engendering Narrative 104

Toward the Posthuman 115

Part IV: What Happened to History? 124

The Past is Prologue 126

Tunneling In 132

Imagining Epoch 136

Another History 146

Narrating Vietnam 150

Catastrophe: The Ends of History 162

Part V: Relations Stopping Nowhere 172

The Postnuclear Family 173

The Reach of Community 187

From There to Here: Migration and Nation 199

Epilogue 213

Notes 216

References 220

Index 228

Über Autor(innen)

Patrick O'Donnell is Professor of English and American Literature at Michigan State University, where he served as department chair from 1997 to 2007. He has written and edited a number of books and collections on contemporary American fiction and film, including Latent Destinies: Cultural Paranoia in Contemporary U.S. Fiction (2000), Echo Chambers: Figuring Voice in Modern Narrative (1992), Passionate Doubts: Designs of Interpretation in Contemporary American Fiction (1986), and New Essays on The Crying of Lot 49 (edited, 1991). He is an associate editor of The Columbia History of the American Novel (1991), a former editor of Modern Fiction Studies, and a co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Fiction (forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell).