From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature by Richard Ru

Description: From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature by Richard Ruland From a modernist/postmodernist perspective, this title addresses questions of literary and cultural nationalism. It reveals that since 17th century, American writing has reflected the political and historical climate and helped define Americas cultural and social parameters. It argues that American literature has always been essentially modern. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description No literary history can be a final and once-and-for-all account, but the authors of this book have sought certain things: a reasonable inclusiveness, up-to-date reading of the authors work discussed, an informed critical posture. Having considered the complexity of American literature in social, historical and ideological context, at the same time recognizing American literature has been a Western literature, related to the thought and art movements that have crossed Europe and America. One advantage of a collaborated book, with authors from two sides of the Atlantic is a breadth of perspective and mixture of critical attitudes. Author Biography Malcolm Bradbury was a novelist, critic, television dramatist and Emeritus Professor of American Studies at the University of East Anglia. He is author of the novels Eating People Is Wrong (1959); Stepping Westward (1965); The History Man (1975), which won the Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize and was adapted as a famous television series; Rates of Exchange (1983), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Cuts: A Very Short Novel (1987), also televised; and Doctor Criminale (1992).His critical works include The Modern American Novel (1984; revised edition, 1992), No, Not Bloomsbury (essays, 1987), The Modern World: Ten Great Writers (1988), The Modern British Novel (1993) and Dangerous Pilgrimages (1995).He has also edited Modernism (with James McFarlane, 1976), The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories (1988) and The Atlas of Literature (1997). He is the author of a collection of seven stories and nine parodies, entitled Who Do You Think You Are? (1976), and of several works of humour and satire, including Why Come to Slaka? (1986), Unsent Letters (1988; revised edition, 1995) and Mensonge (1987). Many of his books are published by Penguin. In addition, he has written many television plays and the television novels The Gravy Train and The Gravy Train Goes East. He has also adapted several television series, including Tom Sharpes Porterhouse Blue, Kingsley Amiss The Green Man and Stella Gibbonss Cold Comfort Farm.Malcolm Bradbury was awarded the CBE in 1991 and died in 2000. Richard Ruland is Professor of English and Professor of Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Table of Contents Part 1 The literature of British America: the puritan legacy; awakening and enlightenment. Part 2 From colonial outpost to cultural province: revolution and (in)depedence; American naissance; yea-saying and nay-saying. Part 3 Native and cosmopolitan crosscurrents - from local colour to realism and naturalism: secession and loyalty; muckrakers and early moderns. Part 4 Modernism in the American grain: outland darts and homemade worlds; the second flowering; radical reassessments; strange realities, adequate fictions. Kirkus US Review From Ruland (English and American Literature/Washington State Univ.) and critic-novelist Bradbury (The Modern World: Ten Great Writers; Unsent Letters - both 1988, etc.) - a sound, balanced account of how American writers created works that reflected "a new nation with new experience, a new science and a new politics on a new continent." Neither idiosyncratic nor iconoclastic, this introductory history is, though, sometimes excessively respectful toward the academically au courant. Ruland and Bradbury, an American and Englishman, respectively, nervously tip their hats to multiculturalism, and will leave their audience of general readers scratching their heads over why more attention is paid to the structuralists and deconstructionists than to luminaries like John Cheever, Thomas Wolfe, Edmund Wilson, H.L. Mencken, and Tennessee Williams. American theater (with the exception of Eugene ONeill) is inexcusably slighted, while popular genres such as detective and science fiction are more understandably ignored. When it comes to the early development of American literature, however, the authors are on surer ground and perform ably. In tracing the transition from the allegorical mode of the Puritans to the symbolist mode of the American Literary Renaissance, they explore how "America became a testing place of language and narrative...part of a lasting endeavor to discover the intended nature and purpose of the New World." By examining authors in their historical as well as aesthetic context, they make a number of connections not commonly discussed (e.g., how Mark Twain and his contemporaries missed out on the combat experience in the Civil War). Despite its unwillingness to lance some academic sacred cows, then, this is a comprehensive, often vibrant history of how American writers declared independence from older European forms before making their own unique contributions to world literature. (Kirkus Reviews) Details ISBN0140144358 Author Richard Ruland Short Title FROM PURITANISM TO POSTMODERNI Pages 480 Publisher Penguin Books Language English ISBN-10 0140144358 ISBN-13 9780140144352 Media Book DEWEY 810.9 Year 1999 Publication Date 1999-05-31 Imprint Penguin Books Ltd Subtitle A History of American Literature Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom Illustrations index Birth 1932 Format Paperback Edition Description Revised DOI 10.1604/9780140144352 Audience General/Trade We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! 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