A Journey Through American Literature - Softcover

Hayes, Kevin J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199862060 ISBN 13: 9780199862061

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

A vivid snapshot of America's kaleidoscopic literary tradition, A Journey Through American Literature illuminates the authors, works, and events that have shaped our cultural heritage. Kevin J. Hayes charts this history through a series of approachable thematic chapters--Narrative Voice and the Short Story, the Drama of the Everyday, the Great American Novel--that reveal the richness of American literature while providing a compelling set of footholds with which to engage it. Among the topics covered are the role of travel and the symbolism of geography, characters and the importance of voice and dialect, self-definition and the American dream, new beginnings, and the role of memory. Hayes not only discusses the main canonical genres like poetry, drama, and the novel, but also looks at travel writing, autobiography, and frame tales. Key writers like Mark Twain, Ralph Ellison, Emily Dickinson, and Harriet Jacobs are central players in the drama while dozens more create a backdrop that gives this history depth. The book also features over 20 illustrations, a bibliography, and a chronology listing the key events and work in America's literary history.

About this title

About the Author:

Kevin J. Hayes is Professor of English at the University of Central Oklahoma and the author of The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson.

Review:

"Hayes has read widely and deeply and commands his material always. Organizing the material by genre and sub-genre rather than strictly by chronology makes the work highly readable and original." --Jerome Loving, author of Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens

"Reading Kevin Hayes's personal tour through American literature is like chatting with a one-person book club, whose knowledge comes across in discussing the famous as well as overlooked and interesting writers. Rather than a chronological approach, Hayes takes us on a journey through different genres, making it easy to see how works cluster together by forms and themes. This is an enjoyable and informative read." --Joel Myerson, coeditor of The Oxford Handbook to Transcendentalism

"Hayes' argument that American writing is obsessed with inventing the American person neatly and impressively comprehends the majority of American texts. " -- First Things

"A Journey Through American Literature is a delightful collection of insight, excerpts, and advice. With the book as a guide, readers are likely to approach American writing with better understanding and appreciation, sampling Faulkner with less fear and viewing Seinfeld with more respect." -- ForeWord

"Valuing concision and clarity, [Hayes] offers reasonable, clear critical assessments. And his canvas is comprehensive, covering both iconic texts and obscure works often relegated to the historical footnote...Recommended." --Choice

"I would like put this book into the hands of graduate and undergraduate students of American literature to help them develop a sense of the scope of possibility for future scholarship in the field--and into the hands of many of my colleagues, to remind us what we used to stay up late talking about." --Studies in American Naturalism

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0199862060
• ISBN 13: 9780199862061
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220