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First Edition

Britannica Educational PublishingMichael I. Levy: Executive EditorJ.E. Luebering: Senior Manager Marilyn L. Barton: Senior Coordinator, Production ControlSteven Bosco: Director, Editorial TechnologiesLisa S. Braucher: Senior Producer and Data EditorYvette Charboneau: Senior Copy EditorKathy Nakamura: Manager, Media AcquisitionAdam Augustyn: Assistant Manager and Assistant Editor, Literature

Rosen Educational ServicesJeanne Nagle: Senior EditorHeather M. Moore Niver: EditorNelson Sá: Art DirectorCindy Reiman: Photography Manager Matthew Cauli: Designer, Cover DesignerIntroduction by Greg Roza

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

American literature from 1945 through today / edited by Adam Augustyn. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (The Britannica guide to world literature)“In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Educational Services.”Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-61530-235-2 (eBook)1. American literature--20th century—History and criticism. 2. American literature—21st century—History and criticism. 3. American literature—20th century—Bio-bibliography. 4. American literature—21st century—Bio-bibliography. 5. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. 6. Authors, American—21st century—Biography. I. Augustyn, Adam, 1979-PS225.A44 2011810.9’0054--dc22

2010002166

On the cover: Toni Morrison (left) and Jack Kerouac are part of a bounty of postwar American literary masters that spana larger range of heritages and backgrounds than ever before. James Keyser/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images (Morrison); Hulton Archive/Getty Images (Kerouac).

Pages 10, 20 (map), 223, 227, 229 © www.istockphoto.com/Vasko Miokovic; pp. 20 (books), 79, 125, 156, 190 © www.istockphoto.com

CONTENTSIntroduction 10

Chapter 1: Novels and Short Stories from 1945 21 Realism and Metafi ction 22

Kurt Vonnegut 24 Black Humour 31 The Absurdists 33 Social Realism 37 The New Yorker 45 John Updike 48

Southern Fiction 50 Truman Capote 56 Walker Percy 58

African American Literature 58

Magic Realism 63 New Fictional Modes 66

Norman Mailer 67 Joyce Carol Oates 69

The Infl uence of Raymond Carver 71

E. Annie Proulx 74 Multicultural Writing 75

Chapter 2: Other Signifi cant Novelists and Short-Story Writers of the Postwar Era 79 Nelson Algren 79 Isaac Asimov 81 Russell Banks 82 Octavia E. Butler 83 Sandra Cisneros 84

22222231

38

52

64

Raymond Chandler 85 Hard-Boiled Fiction 87

Robert Coover 89 Don DeLillo 90 Philip K. Dick 91 E.L. Doctorow 92 Richard Ford 94 William Gaddis 95 William Gibson 96 John Hawkes 97 Oscar Hijuelos 99 Jack Kerouac 100

Childhood and Early Infl uences 100

Beat Movement 101 On the Road and

other Early Work 102 Later Work 105

Stephen King 105 Maxine Hong Kingston 107 Bernard Malamud 109 Cormac McCarthy 110 Mary McCarthy 111 Anaïs Nin 113 Tim O’Brien 115 Cynthia Ozick 116 J.D. Salinger 117 Mickey Spillane 118 Wallace Stegner 119 William Styron 120 David Foster Wallace 122 Tom Wolfe 123

Chapter 3: Poetry after World War II 125 Formal Poets 125

86

88

122

126

Experimentation and Beat Poetry 129

Black Mountain Poets 130 Lawrence Ferlinghetti 133

Deep Image Poets 138 James Dickey 140

New Directions 141 Poetic Diction 142 Archibald MacLeish 148

Autobiographical Approaches 149

Gwendolyn Brooks 153

Chapter 4: Postwar American Drama 156 Miller, Williams, and Albee 156

Salem Witch Trials 157 Arthur Miller 159 Tennessee Williams 161 Edward Albee 164 O� -Broadway 166

The Off -Broadway Ascendancy 167

O� -O� Broadway and Regional Theatre 168

The Living Theatre 170 Notable Dramatists

of the Age, in Depth 172 Amiri Baraka 173 Jack Gelber 174 John Guare 175 Tony Kushner 176 David Mamet 178 Suzan-Lori Parks 181 Ntozake Shange 182

151

158

177

143

Sam Shepard 183 Wendy Wasserstein 185 August Wilson 186 Lanford Wilson 188

Chapter 5: Literary Criticism and Theory from 1945 190

Susan Sontag 191 Literary Biography and

the New Journalism 192 Hunter S. Thompson 194

Theory 195 Deconstruction 197

Noteworthy Postwar Critics and Theorists 198

Allan Bloom 199 Harold Bloom 200 Paul de Man 203 Stanley Fish 204 Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 205 bell hooks 208 Alfred Kazin 209 J. Hillis Miller 210 Kate Millett 211 Edward Said 212 Elaine Showalter 215 Lionel Trilling 216 Gore Vidal 217 Cornel West 220

Epilogue 223Glossary 224Bibliography 227Index 229

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185

INTRODUCTION

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7 Introduction 7

In the words of literary historian Malcolm Cowley, the literature that emerged in the United States in the time

between the two world wars represented a “second fl ow-ering” of American literature. Novelists such as William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, dramatists such as Eugene O’Neill, and poets such as Marianne Moore and Robert Frost represented a transformation in form and style. The daring writers of that era had a lasting infl uence on the postwar writers who followed in their footsteps.

Two groups of American writers responded with dis-tinct approaches to the events of World War II. The fi rst approached the subject matter by way of realism, as best seen in the writings of Norman Mailer. Mailer was one of the founders of the new journalism movement, which combined subjective literary qualities with an objective journalistic style. His fi ction and nonfi ction writings attacked the totalitarianism that he had come to believe was intrinsically linked with U.S. politics.

While writers like Mailer, Irwin Shaw, and James Jones employed realism to depict World War II, others used satire and black humour. Drawing on his war experiences to cre-ate a farcical look at the military mindset, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (1961) became one of the era’s pre-eminent pro-test novels. Kurt Vonnegut published Slaughterhouse-Five(1969), a satirical novel centred on his harrowing experi-ences as a U.S. prisoner of war in Dresden, Ger. The book also features wild digressions from the very real horrors of World War II into time travel and alien abduction, which link the work and Vonnegut himself with a new movement in postwar American literature: absurdism.

June 14, 1958, cover of The New Yorker. Since 1925, this periodical has been a vibrant forum for several notable American short story writers, novelists, essayists, and poets. Apic//Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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Absurdism marked a distinct shift away from realism. Writers of the absurdist movement used startlingly cre-ative techniques to express deeply personal emotions in new ways. Absurdist plots often centre around fantastic events, and many absurdist novels openly address their very existence as pieces of literature, a technique that allows them to be classed as metafiction.

One of the finest early practitioners of absurdism was the Russian-born novelist Vladimir Nabokov. After he moved to the United States, he wrote the groundbreak-ing and controversial novel Lolita (1955). Considered by many the greatest American novel of the 20th century, Lolita is known for its rich language and innovative style. Other notable American authors in the absurdist move-ment include John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, and William S. Burroughs.

Despite the experimentation of the absurdists, social realism was still a major force in American litera-ture through the second half of the 20th century. Many authors sought to describe postwar America through intensely personal explorations. Saul Bellow’s novel The Adventures of Augie March (1953) follows an impoverished Chicago boy as he navigates the course of America after the Great Depression. Novelist Philip Roth shed light on middle-class American Jewish society in novels some con-sidered offensive; but his portrayals of race, sexuality, love, and mortality are profound. John Updike is renowned for his stories of middle-class American life. One of his best novels, Rabbit, Run (1960), tells the story of a small-town family man and former star high school athlete who flees responsibility. Updike’s series of Rabbit books (Rabbit, Run was followed by three sequels) explore themes such as uncertainty, discontentment, sexual and moral confusion, and death.

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Southern writers at this time followed the rich tradi-tions started by William Faulkner earlier in the century. Notables among this group were several important female voices, including Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, and Carson McCullers. O’Connor’s darkly comic explorations of the grotesque have aged particularly well, and she has come to be regarded as one of the preeminent writers of the century, despite her modest output—only two novels and a number of short stories.

In 1965 southern writer Truman Capote published In Cold Blood. After hearing of a mass murder in Kansas, Capote spent more than five years interviewing people connected to the case. He used thousands of pages of notes to create a work of nonfiction that used elements of fiction, particularly suspense and vivid descriptions of events. Experts have criticized Capote for fabricating details and dialogue in the book, but many consider it the forerunner of the true crime genre.

After World War II African American authors moved away from the traditions of the Harlem Renaissance. Writers such as James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison sought to portray fully the complexities and difficulties of life for African Americans. Ellison’s The Invisible Man (1952) is told by an African American man who describes what it is like to be “socially invisible” to both whites and blacks. Baldwin, Ellison, and other black writers of their era led the way for future black authors. Alice Walker received the Pulitzer Prize for her black feminist novel The Color Purple in 1982. Toni Morison’s Beloved (1987) won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and in 1993 she became the first African American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Many writers endeavoured to invent new kinds of fiction to respond to the fundamental societal changes

7 Introduction 7

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that took place in America after World War II. The post-modern movement included novelists such as William Gaddis, John Barth, John Hawkes, Donald Barthelme, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Coover, Paul Auster, and Don DeLillo, who used various experimental techniques to convey the new American reality. Many of their works are technically complex and directly address the nature of fiction and reality, often focussing on themes of paranoia, fear, and violence.

At the other end of the fictional spectrum, realist short-story writer Raymond Carver—influenced by Hemingway and the Irish writer Samuel Beckett—wrote spare yet pow-erfully suggestive tales. Often credited with revitalizing interest in minimalist fiction and the short story, Carver influenced many important American writers, including Richard Ford, Russell Banks, and Tobias Wolff.

American poetry was perhaps less innovative and groundbreaking than fiction in the years after World War II, but many important writers of verse rose to promi-nence at this time. Poets such as Theodore Roethke, Robert Lowell, Adrienne Rich, and Frank O’Hara wrote verse that has stood the test of time.

Robert Lowell and Theodore Roethke were impres-sive formal poets, both winning Pulitzer Prizes for their writing. Lowell’s earliest poems are rife with dissonant sounds and chafing images, but his later writing eases into a more laid-back, informal style. Clearly influenced by William Butler Yeats, Roethke’s writing exhibits a keen self-reflection and a heightened sensitivity toward nature. His poetry styles ranged from formal, rhyming stanzas to jovial free verse.

In the 1950s the Beat poets—led by Allen Ginsberg and spurred on by his inimitable and epic poem Howl—began experimenting with new styles and forms, endeavouring

7 American Literature from 1945 Through Today 7

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to free poetry from the confines of academia and bring it “back to the streets.” Important Beat poets include Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, and the novelist Jack Kerouac. Beat poetry performances often featured dense verse and obscenities, and some readings included progressive jazz accompaniment.

After World War II American poetry became more intensely personal and confessional, as shown in the Lowell-influenced works of Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and John Berryman. Sexton’s poetry garnered much attention for its vibrant imagery and unflinching honesty about her nervous breakdown and attempts at recovery. Berryman used a fair amount of humour to lighten the confessional weight of his writing, exhibiting techni-cal flair in poetry, short stories, and even a biography of Stephen Crane. Plath is especially remembered for her poignant self-revelations, sardonic wit, and musings on life and death.

Other writers, encouraged by poet Robert Bly, moved away from the confessional styles of Sexton and Plath toward the individual voice and open forms. Bly encour-aged such writers as Galway Kinnell, James Wright, and David Ignatow to seek a level of spiritual intensity rare in American poetry. The writers of this movement, such as James Dickey, are sometimes called the “deep image” poets. A former soldier and avid hunter, Dickey developed a keen insight on the topics of life and death, predator and prey, and internal versus external conflict. His volume of poems, Buckdancer’s Choice (1965), earned him the National Book Award.

Three playwrights dominated postwar American drama: Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee. Miller’s work addressed both social concerns and inner conflict. He is best known for the Pulitzer

7 Introduction 7

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7 American Literature from 1945 Through Today 7

Prize–winning play Death of a Salesman (1949), an explo-ration of the dark side of the American dream and the struggle for success. Miller is also known for his protest writings, such as The Crucible (1953), which uses the theme of the Salem witch trials to protest the “witch hunts” of the McCarthy era.

Tennessee Williams often wrote exquisite short fic-tion, which he then adapted into plays. Williams’s plays offer a tragic vision of frustrated characters on a quest for meaning in their lives. In his plays the themes of sex and violence often lie beneath a veneer of romantic idealism. His best-known plays include A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), for which he won Pulitzer Prizes.

When Edward Albee emerged on the drama scene, he made a name for himself with his mastery of absurdist theatre. He started out writing poetry and a novel (never published), but he eventually penned several one-act plays. His first full-length play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), was undoubtedly his most successful and estab-lished him as a major voice in American theatre.

By the late 1960s and early ’70s, the focus on drama in the United States shifted from Broadway to smaller, less commercially-oriented venues known as “Off-Broadway.” Smaller production companies, such as the Living Theatre and the Open Theatre, garnered attention for producing innovative and daring new dramas, which mainstream Broadway theatres tended to shy away from. This trend gave voice to a whole new generation of playwrights, such as David Mamet, the playwright, director, and screen-writer who created working-class characters that spoke remarkable idiomatic dialogue. In 1979 playwright Sam Shepard won a Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child (1978), an Off-Broadway production. Tony Kushner, Ntozake Shange,