Critical Perspectives in American Literature

Critical Perspectives in American Literature
Author: Meenakshi Raman
Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Dist
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2005
Genre: American literature
ISBN: 9788126904051

Wherever There Are People There Will Be A Literature. A Literature Is The Record Of Human Experience, And People Have Always Been Impelled To Write Down Their Impressions Of Life. They Do So In Diaries And Letters, In Pamphlets And Books, And In Essays, Poems, Plays, And Fiction. In This Respect American Literature Is Like Any Other, Though It Displays Many Characteristics That Are Similar And Many That Are Dissimilar To The Literary Tradition Of Other Nations. American Literature Has Witnessed Several Trends And Movements:" Puritan/Colonial (1650 1750)" Revolutionary/Age Of Reason (1750 1800)" Romanticism (1800 1860)" American Renaissance/Transcen-Dentalism (1840 1860)" Realism (1855 1900) (Period Of Civil War And Post-War Period)" The Moderns (1900 1950)" Harlem Renaissance (Parallel To Modernism) (1920S)" Postmodernism (1950 To Present)The Present Volume Concentrates On The American Literature Of 19Th And 20Th Centuries And Includes Critical Papers On Authors Widely Prescribed In The Indian Universities. As We Are Aware, The Beauty Of Any Literary Work Is That It Leads To Fresh Interpretation Every Time When Viewed From A Different Angle. The Scholarly And Critical Analysis Presented On The Works Of Several American Literary Masters Such As Emerson, Hawthorn, Poe, Whitman, Hemingway, O Neill, Miller, Morrison, Walker, Etc., By Experts In The Field Of English Literature Would Unquestionably Enable The Readers Gain A New Insight Into The Interpretation Of Literary Works. While Serving As An Additional Resource To The Teachers Of American Literature, This Volume Is Expected To Assist The Students And Researchers In The Domain Of American Literature.

Critical Perspectives on Afro-Latin American Literature

Critical Perspectives on Afro-Latin American Literature
Author: Antonio D. Tillis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2012-04-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136662545

After generations of being rendered virtually invisible by the US academy in critical anthologies and literary histories, writing by Latin Americans of African ancestry has become represented by a booming corpus of intellectual and critical investigation. This volume aims to provide an introduction to the literary worlds and perceptions of national culture and identity of authors from Spanish-America, Brazil, and uniquely, Equatorial Guinea, thus contextually connecting Africa to the history of Spanish colonization. The importance of Latin America literature to the discipline of African Diaspora studies is immeasurable, and this edited collection provides a ripe cultural context for critical comparative analysis among the vast geographies that encompass African and African Diaspora studies. Scholars in the area of African Diaspora Studies, Black Studies, Latin American Studies, and American literature will be able to utilize the eleven essays in this edition to enhance classroom instruction and further academic research.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes
Author: Henry L. Gates
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2000-02-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781567430295

James Langston Hughes (1902 -- 1967) With a career that spanned the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties and Black Arts movement of the sixties, Langston Hughes was the most prolific Black poet of his era. Between 1926, when he published his pioneering The Weary Blues, to 1967, the year of his death, when he published The Panther and the Lash, Hughes would write sixteen books of poems, two novels, seven collections of short stories, two autobiographies, five works of nonfiction, and nine children's books; he would edit nine anthologies of poetry, folklore, short fiction, and humor. He also translated Jaques Roumain, Nicolás Guillén, Gabriela Mistral, Federico Garcia Lorca, and write at least thirty plays. It is not surprising that Hughes was known, variously, as "Shakespeare in Harlem" and as the "poet laureate of the American Negro." -- from the Preface by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Literature and Culture

Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Literature and Culture
Author: Dorsia Smith
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Caribbean Area
ISBN: 9781443826976

Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Literature and Culture is a collection of a dozen essays by Caribbean scholars living in the Caribbean and around the world. Each of the three sections of the book explores the Caribbean as a diasporic space through the lenses of literary and cultural systems. â oeNegotiating Borders: Women, Sexuality, and Identityâ examines the creolized identities of Caribbean societies, gender roles of women, impact of sexual tourism, and censorship of Latino gays and lesbians. The essayists in this section note that much work still needs to be done in academia to give voice to repressed Caribbean populations. â oeCreating Spaces of Caribbean Artistic Expression: Multiple Representationsâ focuses on how music, identity, art, and language depict the diversity of the Caribbean experience. In this section, the essayists examine how the process of creation extends to new cultural expressions. â oeDeconstructing the Diaspora: Caribbean Writers as Political Activistsâ takes into account the tension between oppressor and oppressed, a pressing issue for many Caribbean authors, and focuses on the role of writers in reconstructing Caribbean culture, politics, and history. In pursuit of a more comprehensive West Indian view, this publication provides a novel perspective on Caribbean literary, cultural, and historical experience. The essays featured complement each other in their representation of the multiplicitous Caribbean region with all its claims and anxieties. They cover a wide range of writers and diverse cross-cultural encounters within the Caribbean region and reflect on issues such as Caribbean identity, migration, and artistic form of expression. This publication cuts across geographies, cultures, and disciplines, enriching Caribbean scholarship by recognizing the Caribbeanâ (TM)s tradition of resistance and courage.

Rethinking the Informal City

Rethinking the Informal City
Author: Felipe Hernández
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2012
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0857456075

Latin American cities have always been characterized by a strong tension between what is vaguely described as their formal and informal dimensions. However, the terms formal and informal refer not only to the physical aspect of cities but also to their entire socio-political fabric. Informal cities and settlements exceed the structures of order, control and homogeneity that one expects to find in a formal city; therefore the contributors to this volume - from such disciplines as architecture, urban planning, anthropology, urban design, cultural and urban studies and sociology - focus on alternative methods of analysis in order to study the phenomenon of urban informality. This book provides a thorough review of the work that is currently being carried out by scholars, practitioners and governmental institutions, in and outside Latin America, on the question of informal cities.

Alice Walker

Alice Walker
Author: Henry L. Gates
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2000-02-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781567430264

The Construction of Irish Identity in American Literature

The Construction of Irish Identity in American Literature
Author: Christopher Dowd
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2010-09-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1136902406

This book examines the development of literary constructions of Irish-American identity from the mid-nineteenth century arrival of the Famine generation through the Great Depression. It goes beyond an analysis of negative Irish stereotypes and shows how Irish characters became the site of intense cultural debate regarding American identity, with some writers imagining Irishness to be the antithesis of Americanness, but others suggesting Irishness to be a path to Americanization. This study emphasizes the importance of considering how a sense of Irishness was imagined by both Irish-American writers conscious of the process of self-definition as well as non-Irish writers responsive to shifting cultural concerns regarding ethnic others. It analyzes specific iconic Irish-American characters including Mark Twain’s Huck Finn and Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlet O’Hara, as well as lesser-known Irish monsters who lurked in the American imagination such as T.S. Eliot’s Sweeney and Frank Norris’ McTeague. As Dowd argues, in contemporary American society, Irishness has been largely absorbed into a homogenous white culture, and as a result, it has become a largely invisible ethnicity to many modern literary critics. Too often, they simply do not see Irishness or do not think it relevant, and as a result, many Irish-American characters have been de-ethnicized in the critical literature of the past century. This volume reestablishes the importance of Irish ethnicity to many characters that have come to be misread as generically white and shows how Irishness is integral to their stories.

The New American History

The New American History
Author: Eric Foner
Publisher: Temple University Press
Total Pages: 428
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781566395526

Originally released in 1990, The New American Historyedited for the American Historical Association by Eric Foner, has become an indispensable volume for teachers and students. In essays that chart the shifts in interpretation within their fields, some of our most prominent American historians survey the key works and themes in the scholarship of the last three decades. Along with substantially revised essays from the first edition, this volume presents three entirely new ones - on intellectual history, the history of the West, and the histories of the family and sexuality. The second edition of The New American Historyreflects, in Foner's words, "the continuing vitality and creativity of the study of the past, how traditional fields are being expanded and redefined even as new ones are created." Author note: Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous books, including Reconstruction, 1863-1877which was awarded the Bancroft Prize.

Travel and Dislocation in Contemporary American Fiction

Travel and Dislocation in Contemporary American Fiction
Author: Aliki Varvogli
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2012-03-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1136627030

This book offers a critical study and analysis of American fiction at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It focuses on novels that ‘go outward’ literally and metaphorically, and it concentrates on narratives that take place mainly away from the US’s geographical borders. Varvogli draws on current theories of travel globalization and post-national studies, and proposes a dynamic model that will enable scholars to approach contemporary American fiction and assess recent changes and continuities. Concentrating on work by Philip Caputo, Dave Eggers, Norman Rush and Russell Banks, the book proposes that American literature’s engagement with Africa has shifted and needs to be approached using new methodologies. Novels by Amy Tan, Garrison Keillor, Jonathan Safran Foer and Dave Eggers are examined in the context of travel and globalization, and works by Chang-rae Lee, Ethan Canin, Dinaw Mengestu and Jhumpa Lahiri are used as examples of the changing face of the American immigrant novel, and the changing meaning of national belonging.