Books in the Modern American Literature series

By framing Ford's contemporary representations of masculinity within a more general context of American literature, this book reveals how his texts continue along a trajectory of earlier American fiction while they also re-examine masculinity in complex ways.

A study of African American writer Toni Morrison's work. Beginning with The Bluest Eye in 1970 and continuing through her 2012 novel Home, it describes Morrison as an inherently original novelist who was shaped throughout her career by her role within families.

The Nation of Islam and Black Consciousness pariticipates in the scholarly discussions about the origins and formation of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which rarely give credit to the role of the Nation of Islam's teachings in the emergence of the movement and in shaping the subjects and themes of its literary works.

American Realist Fictions of Marriage intervenes in current critical debates in American literary realism by showing how realism functions as a mode of narration for fictive constructions of marriage and the race, gender, and class upheavals these depictions of marriage represent.

Upends Faulkner biography, scholarship, and criticism by tracing to Honore de Balzac in William Faulkner's oeuvre.

Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction offers close readings of some thirty stories - Chopin's most significant short works - the majority of which have never received analytical scrutiny. These works, predominantly grim, portray the difficulties women confront as they seek autonomy in a social framework that typically constrains them whether they are married, in the midst of courtship, or seeking to live independently. This groundbreaking book makes it apparent that Chopin's short fiction is no less significant than her famous novel, The Awakening, and that her stories also provide a valuable context for that work.

Explores the symbol of the wounded and scarred female body in selected postmodern, multiethnic American women's novels. This book emphasizes the different and nuanced forms of oppression each woman faces.

Playing with Expectations: Postmodern Narrative Choices and the African American Novel explores a merging of works by African American novelists to promote critical acceptance of postmodern literature and advance the legitimacy and usefulness of postmodern literary techniques.

This book critically discusses the works of two seemingly different and unconnected playwrights, Lillian Hellman and August Wilson. By analyzing the black presence in Hellman and its counterpart white presence in Wilson, it exposes interracial boundaries and illuminates the architecture of the new American citizen through the examination of stereotypes, the revelation of sources of ongoing racial tension, and suggested solutions. Their dramas rewrite history to reflect their political activism and espouse a shared value system that demands responsible action, equitable reward, and recognition of women and African Americans as equally valuable citizens of American society.

From Richard Wright to Toni Morrison: Ethics in Modern and Postmodern American Narrative studies the relationship of literature to contemporary ethical problems. Focusing on southern and African American writers, this book employs theoretical approaches from ethnicity studies, regional criticism, and postcolonial theory. It intends to insert a reading of ethics into the critical study of fictional and nonfictional narratives by Richard Wright, James Agee, Flannery O¿Connor, Ernest J. Gaines, Walker Percy, Richard Ford, Toni Morrison, and other modern and postmodern American writers.

Lawrence E. Hussman examines selected novels and short stories of fifty major American fiction writers from Stephen Crane to Junot Diaz. The reader will also find references to American politics, history, and popular culture in the book.

Illustrates that the descent to the underworld is the single most important myth in Pynchon's work, conferring shape and significance upon each of his novels. This book offers a perspective on postmodernism, which is characterized by ludic syncretism - the playful synthesis of myths from a variety of cultures.

Princess stories of the early 2000s are compelling in that they tensely balance romance and feminist assumptions. Suitable for those interested in folklore studies, feminist studies, children's literature, Disney studies, psychology, sociology, or theories of child development, this title examines the fictional princess.

Drawing upon methods used in literary analysis and textual interpretation, this book proposes a new reading of Stephen King's fiction as a literary reflection on the artistic identity of the writer and on writing and shows that horrific descriptions do not necessarily exclude metafiction.

The Game as It Is Played comprises the best of Donald Pizer's essays on Theodore Dreiser. The essays explore several of the more controversial areas of Dreiser scholarship, including his late conversion to communism, his anti-Semitism, and the text of Sister Carrie.