Naturalism in American Fiction

Naturalism in American Fiction
Author :
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages : 240
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780813162508
ISBN-13 : 0813162505
Rating : 4/5 (08 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Naturalism in American Fiction by : John J. Conder

Download or read book Naturalism in American Fiction written by John J. Conder and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this closely reasoned study, John J. Conder has created a new and more vital understanding of naturalism in American literature. Moving from the Hobbesian dilemma between causation and free will down through Bergson's concept of dual selves, Conder defines a view of determinism so rich in possibilities that it can serve as the inspiration of literary works of astonishing variety and unite them in a single, though developing, naturalistic tradition in American letters. At the heart of this book, beyond its philosophic discussion, is Conder's reading of key works in the naturalistic canon, beginning with Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" and "The Blue Hotel." The special character of determinism in Crane is, Conder holds, the source of his complexity and striking originality. He finds a stricter determinism in Norris's McTeague. In Dreiser, however, the naturalistic tradition develops toward a fusion of determinism and freedom in a single work, and this fusion in a different guise operates in Dos Passos's view of self in Manhattan Transfer. With Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath the uniting of determinism and freedom finds its fullest realization in the concept of dual selves, one determined, one free. In Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! the concept of the dual self appears in its most complex form. The developments in the work of Steinbeck and Faulkner, Conder believes, bring the classic phase of American literary naturalism to a close. Naturalism in American Fiction illuminates a group of major literary works and revives a theoretic consideration of naturalism. It thus makes a fundamental contribution to American studies.


Naturalism in American Fiction Related Books

Naturalism in American Fiction
Language: en
Pages: 240
Authors: John J. Conder
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-07-15 - Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this closely reasoned study, John J. Conder has created a new and more vital understanding of naturalism in American literature. Moving from the Hobbesian di
Twentieth-century American Literary Naturalism
Language: en
Pages: 194
Authors: Donald Pizer
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 1982 - Publisher: SIU Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Pizer explores six novels to define naturalism and explain its tenacious hold throughout the twentieth century on the American creative imagination.
The Oxford Handbook of American Literary Naturalism
Language: en
Pages: 536
Authors: Keith Newlin
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-05-26 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

After its heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, naturalism, a genre that typically depicts human beings as the product of biological and en
The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: Donald Pizer
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 1993 - Publisher: SIU Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In his first book devoted exclusively to naturalism, Donald Pizer brings together thirteen essays and four reviews written over a thirty-year period that in the
Resisting Regionalism
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: Donna M. Campbell
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 1997 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Despite such prickly themes, according to Donna Campbell, local color fiction "fulfilled some specific needs of the public - for nostalgia, for a retreat into m