E.L. Doctorow's Skeptical CommitmentP. Lang, 2000 - 194 pagine This book gives a political reading of E. L. Doctorow's fiction. For Doctorow, there was a tension between the ideals of his socially aware family and those of the new critics under whom he studied as an undergraduate. This tension, making him skeptical about the possibilities of political involvement, has been beneficial because it has enabled Doctorow to avoid the excesses of both polemical writing and formalism. Through a stance Tokarczyk terms «skeptical commitment» he has written political fiction of high literary quality. In part, he has done so by adapting genres such as the western and the romance. Furthermore, Doctorow has used experimental techniques to express political and historical themes, thereby writing a kind of postmodern fiction that still maintains the possibility of establishing some truths, while acknowledging indeterminacy. |
Sommario
Introduction | 1 |
Lives of the Poets and Worlds Fair | 27 |
Welcome to Hard Times | 47 |
Copyright | |
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actual African-American American Dream argues artist Barbara become Bennett bildungsroman Billy Bathgate Billy's Blue Blue's Bo Weinberg Book of Daniel characters Clara Coalhouse Walker complicity contemporary crime criminal critics critique culture cynicism depicts desire discussion Doctorow's fiction Doctorow's novels Dutch Schultz E. L. Doctorow Edgar Emma Goldman essay Evelyn Nesbit evil false consciousness father figure Foley gang gangsters genre grotesque Hard Hence human Hutcheon individual interpretation Isaacson Jack London Jewish Joe's Jonathan literary lives Loon Lake Martin McIlvaine McIlvaine's ment midfiction Molly Morris mother myth narrative narrator nature nonetheless novella parents Penfield perhaps Poets political fiction political novel possibility postmodern proletarian novel prose protagonists radical Ragtime readers reflects relationship represents Rosenberg Sartorius Sartorius's sense Sloterdijk social society Sternlicht story suggests Tateh themes tion Tokarczyk Trenner truth Turner typical upward mobility urban vision Waterworks working-class World's Fair writers York