The Representation of History in Post-War American Fiction (1945-1980) - Softcover

Zygmunt Mazur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8370525202 ISBN 13: 9788370525200

Publisher: Universitas, 2001

Synopsis

291 pages // Contents: Introduction; 1. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man; 2. William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner; 3. John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor; 4. Thomas Pynchon, V. and Gravity's Rainbow; 5. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five; 6. E.L. Doctorow, The Book of Daniel; 7. Robert Coover, The Public Burning; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index --- "Dr Zygmunt Mazur has produced an admirable study of a significant and representative group of post-World War II American novels, a group similar in their use of recent and past American historical materials, marked as well by a similar reinterpretation, sometimes radical, of the novel as form. There are many things to appreciate in this study. Among other benefits, readers are provided with an excellent overview of the modern understanding of the epistemological nexus between history and fiction; we are referred to the pertinent theory; readers will find detailed and interesting explorations of the historical elements in eight important post-war novels; we are supplied a synthesis of a considerable range of political and cultural knowledge. To this should be added that this study is communicated through a wonderfully clear prose, a prose that, while adequate to the intellectual argument the author makes, is yet not marred by the pretentious linguistic obscurity endemic to so much modern scholarship. This book will be of wide use to scholars of American Literature, but it will also be a valuable aid to students attempting to understand post-war American fiction." (James R. Thompson, Ohio University Athens, Ohio)

About this edition

• Publisher: Universitas
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 8370525202
• ISBN 13: 9788370525200
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1