The Cambridge Introduction to Contemporary American Fiction

This Introduction explores American fiction of the last thirty years, examining the political and cultural changes that distinguish the period.

Stacey Olster (Author)

9781107049215, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 June 2017

266 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.51 kg

The Cambridge Introduction to Contemporary American Fiction explores fiction written over the last thirty years in the context of the profound political, historical, and cultural changes that have distinguished the contemporary period. Focusing on both established and emerging writers - and with chapters devoted to the American historical novel, regional realism, the American political novel, the end of the Cold War and globalization, 9/11, borderlands and border identities, race, and the legacy of postmodern aesthetics - this Introduction locates contemporary American fiction at the intersection of a specific time and long-standing traditions. In the process, it investigates the entire concept of what constitutes an “American” author while exploring the vexed, yet resilient, nature of what the concept of home has come to signify in so much writing today. This wide-ranging study will be invaluable to students, instructors, and general readers alike.

Introduction: from Sweet Home to homeland
1. History and the novel
2. Regional realism
3. The contemporary political novel
4. The novel and 9/11
5. Smooth worlds
6. Borderlands and border identities
7. Race relations
Conclusion: postscripts and post-postmodernism
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary studies: general [DSB]