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Critical Insights: The Sun Also Rises
Edited
and Introduction by Keith Newlin
Salem
Press, 2010.
ISBN:
978-1-58765-713-9
ABOUT
THE BOOK
The Sun Also
Rises has cast a
long shadow over American literature ever since its publication in 1926.
Overnight, its author was acclaimed as the spokesman of what Gertrude
Stein called the "lost generation"; young men and women began
modeling themselves after the novel's tough-talking, dissolute
characters; and its revolutionary prose style spawned countless
imitations and, after these had worn thin, parodies. Though Hemingway
went on to write five more novels and dozens of short stories before
winning the Nobel Prize in 1953, The Sun Also Rises, his second
novel, endures as a quintessential American classic. With its vivid
characters and spare, laconic prose, it effectively captures the
despair, disillusionment, and muted hope of a generation struggling to
find meaning in a world torn apart by war. A favorite in high school and
college classrooms around the world, it has also, as this volume
attests, persisted in generating a wide range of critical opinions.
Edited and with an introduction by Keith Newlin, Professor and Chair of
the Department of English at the University of North Carolina
Wilmington, this volume brings together a variety of new, classic, and
contemporary criticism on Hemingway's masterpiece. Newlin's introduction
describes how Hemingway revised his early draft of the novel, refining
his initial inspiration-a trip he had taken to Pamplona with his wife
and friends-into a complex, tightly woven story of implication and
omission. Petrina Crockford, writing for The Paris Review,
demonstrates how the novel prefigures Hemingway's development as a
writer as well as the themes that would preoccupy him throughout his
career.
For readers studying The Sun Also Rises for the first time, a
quartet of new essays provide valuable introductory material. Matthew J.
Bolton explores the novel's cultural context with a discussion of
Hemingway's involvement in the Parisian expatriate community; Jennifer
Banach sets Hemingway's portrayals of masculinity and femininity within
the novel against the cultural changes brought on by the war; Lori
Watkins Fulton, examining Hemingway's lifelong rivalry with William
Faulkner, finds it prefigured in Jake Barnes's rivalry with Robert Cohn;
and Laurence W. Mazzeno offers a survey of the major trends in criticism
of the novel.
The remainder of the volume presents a diverse selection of classic and
contemporary critical essays. Carlos Baker, Hemingway's first
biographer, provides an overview of the context in which Hemingway
composed his famous work, while essays by Mark Spilka, Dewey Ganzel,
Delbert E. Wylder, Donald T. Torchiana, and Scott Donaldson offer
perspectives on some perennial critical concerns: what kind of morality
the novel offers (if any), and just what qualities can be considered
heroic in Hemingway's protagonists. More contemporary essays reflect
recent shifts in critical preoccupations. In an alternative feminist
reading, Sibbie O'Sullivan finds in Jake and Brett's relationship an
affirmation of love and friendship. Ira Elliott considers the
performative aspects of Jake's masculinity, and Lorie Fulton offers an
alternative perspective on Jake's narration and Brett Ashley's
character. Jeremy Kaye revisits Hemingway's depiction of Jewish
masculinity in Robert Cohn, and Donald A. Daiker shows how teaching and
learning figure as motifs througout the novel. Finally, Dana Fore draws
on recent work in disability studies to offer an analysis of Jake's
views of disability and his own injury.
Concluding the volume are a chronology of Hemingway's life, a list of
his principal works, and a lengthy bibliography of critical works for
readers desiring to study this classic novel in greater depth.
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