The American 1930s : a literary history / Peter Conn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Conn, Peter J.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Nineteen thirties.

Literature and history--United States.

Literature and history.

United States.

America--In literature.

America.

United States--Civilization--1918-1945.

Civilization.

Physical Description:

xiv, 265 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Summary:

Beginning with the stock market crash of 1929 and ending with America's entry into the Second World War, the long Depression decade was a period of immense social, economic, and political turmoil. In response, writers as various as John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, Langston Hughes, Pearl S. Buck, and others looked to the past to make sense of the present. In this important new study of the 1930s, the distinguished cultural historian Peter Conn traces the extensive and complex engagement with the past that characterized the imaginative writing of the decade. Moving expertly between historical events and literature, Conn includes discussions of historical novels, plays and poems, biographies and autobiographies, as well as factual and imaginary works of history. Mapping the decade's extraordinary intellectual range with authority and flair, The American 1930s is a widely anticipated contribution to American literary studies.

Contents:

Introduction: History and literary history 1

1 Farewell to the twenties 9

2 Looking for America: The presence of the past 35

3 Lost and found: Historical fictions 58

4 Backward glances: Biography and autobiography 107

5 The Southern past 154

6 Black memory 184

7 History and the party line 208.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780521516402

0521516404

9780521734318

0521734312

OCLC:

237884213