A Companion to the American Novel

Copyright © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

A Companion to the American Novel

Editor(s): Alfred Bendixen

Published Online: 30 MAR 2012 02:35AM EST

Print ISBN: 9781405101196

Online ISBN: 9781118384329

DOI: 10.1002/9781118384329

About this Book

Product Information

About The Product

Featuring 37 essays by distinguished literary scholars, A Companion to the American Novel provides a comprehensive single-volume treatment of the development of the novel in the United States from the late 18th century to the present day.

  • Represents the most comprehensive single-volume introduction to this popular literary form currently available
  • Features 37 contributions from a wide range of distinguished literary scholars
  • Includes essays on topics and genres, historical overviews, and key individual works, including The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, The Great Gatsby, Beloved, and many more.

Table of contents

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      Front Matter (pages i–lxx)

  2. Part I: Historical Developments

    1. Chapter 1

      The Development of the American Novel: The Transformations of Genre (pages 1–18)

      Alfred Bendixen

    2. Chapter 2

      The American Novel: Beginnings through the American Renaissance (pages 19–41)

      Maria Karafilis

    3. Chapter 3

      The American Novel: Realism and Naturalism (1860–1920) (pages 42–59)

      Jeanne Campbell Reesman

    4. Chapter 4

      Modernism and the American Novel (pages 60–75)

      Peter L. Hays

    5. Chapter 5

      Beyond Modernism: The American Novel between the World Wars (pages 76–89)

      Alfred Bendixen

    6. Chapter 6

      The Cold War Novel: The American Novel between 1945–1970 (pages 90–108)

      Sharon Becker and Wendy Martin

    7. Chapter 7

      The Novel in a Changing America: Multiculturalism and other Issues (1970–Present) (pages 109–126)

      Martha J. Cutter

  3. Part II: Genres and Traditions

    1. Chapter 8

      Fear, Ambiguity, and Transgression: The Gothic Novel in the United States (pages 127–146)

      Charles L. Crow

    2. Chapter 9

      The American Historical Romance: From James Fenimore Cooper and Nathaniel Hawthorne to Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, and E. L. Doctorow (pages 147–169)

      Emily Miller Budick

    3. Chapter 10

      Making this whole Nation Feel: The Sentimental Novel in the United States (pages 170–186)

      Marianne Noble

    4. Chapter 11

      Social Protest, Reform, and the American Political Novel (pages 187–205)

      Chip Rhodes

    5. Chapter 12

      The American War Novel Tradition and the Individual Soldier (pages 206–217)

      James H. Meredith

    6. Chapter 13

      From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Comic Traditions in the American Novel (pages 218–240)

      Judith Yaross Lee

    7. Chapter 14

      Plotting a way Home: The Jewish American Novel (pages 241–258)

      Derek Parker Royal

    8. Chapter 15

      Chicano/a Traditions in the American Novel (pages 259–273)

      Juan J. Alonzo

    9. Chapter 16

      African American Traditions and the American Novel (pages 274–290)

      Melvin Donalson

    10. Chapter 17

      The American Novel of Mystery, Crime, and Detection (pages 291–308)

      Leonard Cassuto

    11. Chapter 18

      O Brave New Worlds: Science Fiction and the American Novel (pages 309–322)

      Eric S. Rabkin

    12. Chapter 19

      Dreaming of a White Future: Mary E. Bradley Lane, Edward Bellamy, and the Origins of the Utopian Novel in the United States (pages 323–341)

      Jean Pfaelzer

    13. Chapter 20

      Queer Theory and the American Novel (pages 342–356)

      Deborah Carlin

    14. Chapter 21

      The American Short-Story Cycle: Out from the Novel's Shadow (pages 357–372)

      Robert M. Luscher

  4. Part III: Major Texts

    1. Chapter 22

      The Woman's Law in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (pages 373–393)

      Monika Elbert

    2. Chapter 23

      Writ in Water: The Books of Melville's Moby-Dick (pages 394–407)

      Wyn Kelley

    3. Chapter 24

      Wonder of Wonders: Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (pages 408–421)

      Susan Belasco

    4. Chapter 25

      Citational Strategies and Literary Traditions: Placing Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (pages 422–442)

      Greg W. Zacharias

    5. Chapter 26

      Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Child's Search for Comfort and Peace (pages 443–453)

      Michael J. Kiskis

    6. Chapter 27

      What Women want: Kate Chopin's The Awakening (pages 454–464)

      Emily Toth

    7. Chapter 28

      Private Fleming's Various Battles: Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage (pages 465–474)

      James Nagel

    8. Chapter 29

      Lily's Story: Edith Wharton's House of Mirth (pages 475–487)

      Kathy Fedorko

    9. Chapter 30

      The Confessional Narration of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun also Rises (pages 488–498)

      James Nagel

    10. Chapter 31

      Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and the Myth of the Land (pages 499–509)

      Richard Lehan

    11. Chapter 32

      Ground Zero: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (pages 510–524)

      Philip Weinstein

    12. Chapter 33

      A Bigger Vision: Richard Wright's Native Son and the Great American Novel (pages 525–536)

      Andrew Warnes

    13. Chapter 34

      Our Invisible Man: The Aesthetic Genealogy of US Diversity (pages 537–553)

      John Carlos Rowe

    14. Chapter 35

      The Visionary Exuberance of Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March (pages 554–569)

      Ben Siegel

    15. Chapter 36

      The Flesh and the Word: Toni Morrison's Beloved (pages 570–581)

      Valerie Smith

    16. Chapter 37

      A Different Kind of Love Story: Cormac McCarthy's The Road (pages 582–597)

      Olivia Carr Edenfield

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      Selected Readings in the Genres of the American Novel (pages 598–609)

    1. You have free access to this content
      Index (pages 610–633)

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