Freeman Love American Style

Divorce and the American Novel, 1881-1976
Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-1-135-88537-3
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

Reihe: Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory

A popular subject in sociology and cultural studies, divorce has until recently been overlooked by literary critics. Spanning nearly a century during which the divorce rate skyrocketed, Love American Style traces the treatment of divorce in the American novel. This book draws upon popular, sociological, political and architectural history to illustrate how divorce reflects conflicting ideologies and notions of American identity. Focusing primarily on work by William Dean Howells, Edith Wharton, Mary McCarthy and John Updike, Kimberly Freeman delineates a system of tropes particular to divorce in American novels, such as the association of divorce with the West and modernity, the dismantling of the home, and the disruption of the boundary between the public and the private. These tropes suggest a literary tradition of love, marriage and divorce that is central to twentieth century American fiction. Offering an explanation for both the treatment of divorce in the American novel as well as its predominance in American culture, this book should appeal to scholars of American literature and popular culture, or anyone interested in how divorce has become so 'American'.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Freeman, Kimberly

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Familiensoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
One: Americanizing Divorce
Two: The "Enormous Fact" of American Life: Divorce in William Dean Howells's A Modern Instance
Three: Divorce, Edith Wharton's American Custom, in The Custom of the Country
Four: Divorce and the Separation of Life from Fiction in Mary McCarthy's A Charmed Life
Five: Divorce Me: Romance and Realism in John Updike's Marry Me
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of the District of Columbia, Kimberly Freeman has published articles in A/B: Auto/Biography and American Literary Realism. She has also contributed to the Reader's Guide to Gay and Lesbian Studies and A Theodore Dreiser Encyclopedia. She received her Ph.D. from the Univeristy of Connecticut.