Because naturalism seems antithetical to modernism and literary existentialism, slight attention has been given to the existence of a contemporary, or post-World War II, naturalism. Indeed, the very term serves as a synonym for "old fashioned." While understandable, this view has contributed to the misunderstanding, if not neglect, of several American writers who came to prominence in the late 1940s and 1950s. James Jones coined the term "the unfound generation" to describe these writers. The career of Nelson Algren ...
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Because naturalism seems antithetical to modernism and literary existentialism, slight attention has been given to the existence of a contemporary, or post-World War II, naturalism. Indeed, the very term serves as a synonym for "old fashioned." While understandable, this view has contributed to the misunderstanding, if not neglect, of several American writers who came to prominence in the late 1940s and 1950s. James Jones coined the term "the unfound generation" to describe these writers. The career of Nelson Algren exemplifies this phenomenon. Nelson Algren has always been an enigmatic figure, even at the peak of his career. Algren himself was the source of some of the confusion but he was also the victim of a long continuing critical misperception, that as a disciple of Theodore Dreiser he stressed external reality and social protest. In fact, while he never wavered in his commitment to the "lumpenproletariat", society's outcasts, his vision evolved significantly, especially through his acquaintance with Sartre, Beauvoir, and Celine. Algren's best work reflects his despair over the "absurd" at least as much as his outrage over social and economic injustice. In Confronting the Horror , James R. Giles examines the evolution of Algren's major themes--external oppression and internal anxiety. He discusses Algren's fiction in relation to Maxim Gorky's explanation of the "lower depths" and the works of two contemporary writers, Hubert Selby, Jr., and John Rechy, who combine naturalistic technique with a largely existential, absurdist vision. Giles conclusion is forcefully argued, that Algren's novels are thematically richer and more complex than hitherto regarded and represent the work of an American writer of the first order.
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Seller's Description:
Fine Condition in Fine jacket. Dust Jacket is in fine condition without tears or chips or other damage. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Literature & Literary; ISBN: 0873383788. ISBN/EAN: 9780873383783. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 1359.
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine in very good jacket. First edition, 1989. Cloth hardcover in dust jacket, 132 pp., clean unmarked text, Near Fine copy in Very Good dust jacket, a bit of discoloration to the page-edges, some wear to the tips and edges of the dust jacket including creasing, minor tearing, and a bit of loss. Signed on the front flyleaf by Giles and inscribed by him to Matt Bruccoli. Matthew Joseph Bruccoli (1931-2008) was the foremost F. Scott Fitzgerald scholar and bibliographer of his time. Additionally, he wrote on, and edited critical editions of Hemingway, Hammett, Cozzens, Thomas Wolfe, John O'Hara, and Vladimir Nabokov. He studied bibliography under the tutelage of Fredson Bowers and worked with Jacob Blanck on the Bibliography of American Literature. He was responsible for the republication and rediscovery of dozens of forgotten American novels, and went on to be the editor and publisher of the 400+ volume Dictionary of Literary Biography, and was the chief editor of the University of Pittsburgh Press bibliography series.
