Understanding Nelson Algren traces the career of a writer best known for his novels The Man with the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side. From Algren's first short stories through his final fiction, the posthumously published The Devil's Stocking, Brooke Horvath surveys the literary contributions of a writer known as the voice of America's dispossessed. Horvath offers an introduction to the life and work of the Chicagoan who wrote about the underclass in the Windy City and beyond, bringing to the fore their humanity and aspirations. He proposes that while it is appropriate to view Algren's work through the lenses of literary naturalism, disenchanted social critique, and (in later his works) postmodernism, Algren's ideological concerns should not eclipse his considerable stylistic achievements, including his lyricism and humor. Examining Algren's eleven major works in the contexts of the writer's life and changing literary tastes, Horvath sets Algren's evolution as a writer against the backdrop of America's shifting social, political, and economic landscape. Throughout his analysis, Horvath considers the questions that plagued Algren and that reappear in his work: Why do so many Americas fail? How do they view their own failure? How do the ""successful"" view those at the bottom of the economic order? And to what extent do the middle and upper classes experience failure or require salvific intervention?
| ISBN: | 9781570035746 |
| Publication date: | 31st May 2005 |
| Author: | Brooke Horvath |
| Publisher: | The University of South Carolina Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 227 pages |
| Series: | Understanding Contemporary American Literature |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 |
Understanding Nelson Algren traces the career of a writer best known for his novels The Man with the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side. From Algren's first short stories through his final fiction, the posthumously published The Devil's Stocking, Brooke Horvath surveys the literary contributions of a writer known as the voice of America's dispossessed. Horvath offers an introduction to the life and work of the Chicagoan who wrote about the underclass in the Windy City and beyond, bringing to the fore their humanity and aspirations. He proposes that while it is appropriate to view Algren's work through the lenses of literary naturalism, disenchanted social critique, and (in later his works) postmodernism, Algren's ideological concerns should not eclipse his considerable stylistic achievements, including his lyricism and humor. Examining Algren's eleven major works in the contexts of the writer's life and changing literary tastes, Horvath sets Algren's evolution as a writer against the backdrop of America's shifting social, political, and economic landscape. Throughout his analysis, Horvath considers the questions that plagued Algren and that reappear in his work: Why do so many Americas fail? How do they view their own failure? How do the ""successful"" view those at the bottom of the economic order? And to what extent do the middle and upper classes experience failure or require salvific intervention?
Understanding Nelson Algren features in the following genres: Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000
Understanding Nelson Algren is available in Hardback
Understanding Nelson Algren was written by Brooke Horvath and published by The University of South Carolina Press
Understanding Nelson Algren has 227 pages
Yes it is part of Understanding Contemporary American Literature series