Twisted apples: Sherwood Anderson's grotesque America and the literature of dysfunction.
Item
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Title
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Twisted apples: Sherwood Anderson's grotesque America and the literature of dysfunction.
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Identifier
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AAI9732893
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identifier
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9732893
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Creator
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Berkowitz, Alan Steven.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Morris Dickstein
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American | Literature, Modern | American Studies
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Abstract
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The American experience, from exploration to the taming of the continent, suggests a national ethos of grappling with harsh realities. A trend of realism emerges in our native literature, exemplified by the fiction of Mark Twain, Henry James, and Ernest Hemingway.;However, another literary tradition exists that often intertwines with realism: the gothic and the grotesque. With late 19th century writers like Stephen Crane and Frank Norris, we can locate within American literature a distinct native tradition of themes, symbols, and stylistic tone evoking a sense of foreboding and dread. This highly stylized alternative tradition can be found in the fiction of Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe. Odd, incongruous elements abound in our literature, from Irving's bowling elves and headless horseman to Cooper's bloodthirsty savages and perilous wilderness, to Poe's grotesque tales of horror and madness.;By 1900, a genteel tradition of regional realism seemed to dominate our literature. Made respectable by William Dean Howells and Henry James, literary realism was almost single-handedly turned onto its ear by the startling fiction of Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941).;For Sherwood Anderson and his literary disciples like William Faulkner, Nathanael West and Flannery O'Connor, the modern American experience had somehow turned sour and strange. The pressure to adapt to the new values of industrialism, success and mass consumption takes its toll on the typical Andersonian protagonist. Traditional agrarian values of charity and community are replaced by loneliness and frustration, due to the difficulties of modern life.;It is with Winesburq, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson's most famous and critically acclaimed work, that he explored human loneliness, isolation, and failure lurking behind the deceptive facade of the bland American small town. The impact of the fiction of Sherwood Anderson and his unique articulation of the grotesque on the next generation of American writers starting with William Faulkner and Nathanael West will be the prime focus of this study.;This study will trace the grotesque tradition as it was revived and re-articulated by Sherwood Anderson, and was molded into a distinct literature of dysfunction by William Faulkner, Nathanael West, Carson McCullers, and Flannery O'Connor.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
