The Contemporary American Novel in Context (Texts @ Contexts) - Softcover

Dix, Andrew; Jarvis, Brian; Jenner, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 082643696X ISBN 13: 9780826436962

Publisher: Continuum, 2011

Synopsis

Adventurous, engaging and politically urgent, contemporary American novels have come to enjoy a particular prestige and, through university courses, film adaptations and cultural controversies, a global circulation. This book provides a critical introduction to novels produced in the United States between 1980 and the present. Compact yet wide-ranging, and written in vivid, accessible prose, it registers the diversity of contemporary American fiction and carefully situates this work in historical contexts that include Reaganomics, the Clinton years and the post-9/11 'War on Terror' Detailed attention is given throughout to how America's current novelists have responded to shifting gender politics, changes in the nation's racial configuration, the increasing dominance of a commodity culture and to adjustments in the United States' place in the world following the end of the Cold War and the increased pace of globalisation. Complete with detailed lists of secondary sources both in print and on the web, and suggestions for students' own research projects, this is the ideal resource for anyone beginning study of this vibrant literature.

About this title

Book Description:

Critical introduction to the contemporary american novel focusing on contexts, key texts and criticism.

About the Author:

Brian Jarvis is Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Film at Loughborough University, UK. He is the author of Postmodern Cartographies: The Geographical Imagination in Contemporary American Culture (1998) and Cruel and Unusual: A Cultural History of Punishment in America (2004) and of essays on topics including 'dirty realism', Vietnam War fiction, the literature and cinema of 9/11, and contemporary horror film.

Paul Jenner is Lecturer in American Studies at Loughborough University, UK. He is currently working on a full-length study of the American philosopher Stanley Cavell, and his other research interests include American noir fiction, and theories and fictions of postmodernity.

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 082643696X
• ISBN 13: 9780826436962
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192