American Literature in Transition, 1990–2000

This book explores the dynamics of literary change in the 1990s for American literature.

Stephen J. Burn (Edited by)

9781107136014, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 December 2017

396 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.76 kg

Written in the shadow of the approaching millennium, American literature in the 1990s was beset by bleak announcements of the end of books, the end of postmodernism, and even the end of literature. Yet, as conservative critics marked the century's twilight hours by launching elegies for the conventional canon, American writers proved the continuing vitality of their literature by reinvigorating inherited forms, by adopting and adapting emerging technologies to narrative ends, and by finding new voices that had remained outside that canon for too long. By reading 1990s literature in a sequence of shifting contexts - from independent presses to the AIDS crisis, and from angelology to virtual reality - American Literature in Transition, 1990–2000 provides the fullest map yet of the changing shape of a rich and diverse decade's literary production. It offers new perspectives on the period's well-known landmarks, Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, but also overdue recognition to writers such as Ana Castillo, Evan Dara, Steve Erickson, and Carole Maso.

Part I. End times: 1. American literature and the Millennium Jeremy Green
2. Angels, ghosts and post secular visions Brian McHale
3. Aging novelists and the end of the American century Marshall Boswell
4. Violence Sean Grattan
5. The end of the book David Ciccoricco
6. The end of postmodernism Ralph Clare
Part II. Forms: 7. Enclyclopedic fictions Stephen J. Burn
8. Historical fiction John N. Duvall
9. Lyrical thinking in poetry of the '90s Thomas Gardner
10. Story-cycles Paul March-Russell
11. Materiality in the late age of print Mary K. Holland
12. Manifestos Rachel Greenwalk Smith
13. Revisionary strategies Christian Moraru
Part III. Interconnectivity: 14. Borders and mixed race fictions Aliki Varvogli
15. Globalization Paul Giles
16. The two cultures Novel Jon Adams
17. Ecosystem Heather Houser
18. Virtual reality Joseph Conte
Part IV. Public and Private Life: 19. Trauma Patrick O'Donnell
20. Family Kasia Boddy
21. Aids Lesley Larkin
Part V. Institutions: 22. The university 'after' theory Daniel Punday
23. Independent presses Jeffrey R. Dileo.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]