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Critical Insights: The American Dream
Edited
and Introduction by Keith Newlin
Salem
Press, 2013.
ISBN:
978-1-4298-3837-5
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Deconstruction
of the promise of prosperity and success—and often subsequent
disillusionment—associated with the American Dream and Experience
"The American Dream" is a phrase that has become an essential
component of the American experience, a phrase that, once entered into
the national lexicon, has come to define our nation’s identity,
underlying nearly every aspect of our lives. And since the birth of the
founding document of our nation, the Declaration of Independence, the
idea of "the American Dream" has become a pervasive and
frequently deconstructed theme within the canon of American literature.
Edited by Keith Newlin, Professor of English at the University of North
Carolina Wilmington, Critical Insights: The American Dream offers
thirteen original essays exploring the contexts and expressions of the
dream as it is reflected in our imaginative literature. For readers who
are studying it for the first time, four essays survey the critical
conversation regarding the theme, explore its cultural and historical
contexts, and offer close and comparative readings of key texts in the
genre. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the theme can then move
on to other essays that explore it in depth through a variety of
critical approaches. Works discussed include The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, Bernard
Malamud’s The Assistant, Américo Paredes’s George Washington Gomez,
and Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, as well as the works of Willa
Cather, Cormac McCarthy, Theodore Dreiser, and Michael Gold, among
others. Among the contributors are Steven Frye, James R. Giles, James
Nagel, and Lee Schweninger.
Rounding out the volume are a list of literary works not mentioned in the book that concern the theme as well as a bibliography of critical sources for readers seeking to study this timeless theme in greater depth.
Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes. Finally, the volume's appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources:
About This Volume
Critical Context: Original Introductory Essays
Critical Readings: Original In-Depth Essays
Further Readings
Detailed Bibliography
Detailed Bio of the Editor
General Subject Index
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