Wiley-Blackwell Reading the American Novel 1920-2010 (Reading the Novel)

From the Inside Flap Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel, 1920-2010 is an instructive and insightful companion for students and scholars of American literature. It situates the American novel within the broader social, political, and artistic history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and equips its readers with key tools of rhetorical analysis that will enhance their capacities to respond to the remarkable diversity of the novel throughout this period.  James Phelan’s survey keeps its eye on the historical trajectory of the genre, even as it considers each individual novel’s responses to specific aspects of its historical moment. In addition, Phelan engages in various productive cross-novel comparisons and contrasts with regard to such matters as the uses of unreliable narration, strategies for beginning and ending, and adaptations of the Bildungsroman.   Product Description This astute guide to the literary achievements of American novelists in the twentieth century places their work in its historical context and offers detailed analyses of landmark novels based on a clearly laid out set of tools for analyzing narrative form.Includes a valuable overview of twentieth- and early twenty-first century American literary historyProvides analyses of numerous core texts including The Great Gatsby, Invisible Man, The Sound and the Fury, The Crying of Lot 49 and FreedomRelates these individual novels to the broader artistic movements of modernism and postmodernismExplains and applies key principles of rhetorical readingIncludes numerous cross-novel comparisons and contrasts    Review “It is an excellent book.”  (Primary Health Care,1 March 2015)“Reading the American Novelis also a rich experience, both in terms of the novels discussed and in terms of their literary-critical examination.”  (Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas,13 January 2014)  Review "In these fine rhetorical readings of novels by Hurston, Faulkner, Nabokov, Morrison and others, James Phelan offers a capacious view of the development of the American novel from the twentieth century to the twenty-first.  With characteristic clarity and precision, Phelan considers the many ways in which imaginative vision and acts of reading coalesce as they reflect the experience of living in the modern world.  This is an essential contribution to the understanding of the American novel in our time."—Patrick O’Donnell, Michigan State University From the Back Cover Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel, 1920-2010 is an instructive and insightful companion for students and scholars of American literature. It situates the American novel within the broader social, political, and artistic history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and equips its readers with key tools of rhetorical analysis that will enhance their capacities to respond to the remarkable diversity of the novel throughout this period.  James Phelan’s survey keeps its eye on the historical trajectory of the genre, even as it considers each individual novel’s responses to specific aspects of its historical moment. In addition, Phelan engages in various productive cross-novel comparisons and contrasts with regard to such matters as the uses of unreliable narration, strategies for beginning and ending, and adaptations of the Bildungsroman.   About the Author James Phelan is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of English at Ohio State University, USA. His wide-ranging research in narrative theory includes influential studies of literary character, narrative progression, unreliable narration, and the ethics of reading as well as significant fresh interpretations of numerous twentieth-century American and British novels and short stories. The editor of Narrative, the journal International Society for the Study of Narrative, Prof Phelan is also a prolific author and editor whose credits include the priz