The American Dream in Literature

This is the first collection of essays in which African critics present an in-depth study of African-American writers. These prominent critics from different African countries and backgrounds bring an important perspective to the complex relationship between African Americans and Africa. Through provocative readings of prominent African-American writers, the contributors provide insights into contemporary African-American issues. This collection offers a rare opportunity to view African opinions on what it means to be African American.

In Black Boy, Richard Wright triumphs over an ugly, racist world by fashioning an inspiring, powerful, beautiful, and fictionalized autobiography. To help students understand and appreciate his story in the cultural, political, racial, social, and literary contexts of its time, this casebook provides a rich source of primary historical documents, collateral readings, and commentary. The selection of unique documents is designed to place in sharp relief the pervasive issue of racism in American society. Documents include excerpts from other autobiographies and a novel, legal documents, speeches, an interview, an anthropological study, magazine and newspaper articles, and contemporary editorials. Most of the documents are available in no other printed form.

Analyzes the novel's depictions of blacks and whites and the messages those depictions send. Considers Huck Finn in light of historical records left by slaves and slaveholders in order to determine where the book undermines or upholds traditional racist attitudes, and reviews key episodes in the novel to discover the characters' and the author's attitudes and responses to the slave system. Also discusses controversy surrounding teaching the novel.

Although John Steinbeck's novellas, Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, and The Pearl are works of fiction, they provide a window on the history of the times and places they portray. Studying the historical, social, economic, and regional background of each novella is important to fully understanding each work. This interdisciplinary collection of rich collateral materials features a variety of primary documents that shed light on the background of each of these novellas--the pioneer days and life on the Western frontier, the early history of California, the gold rush, the plight of the migrant worker during the Great Depression, the problems of the homeless and the hopeless, and oppression in Mexico in the early 20th century. Documents include memoirs of mountain men and pioneers, books of travel, sociological studies, a political treatise, a journal, reports of U.S. commissions, a comic memoir, and an interview with a Salvation Army general who worked with the downtrodden during the 1930s. Most of these materials are not available in printed form anywhere else.

The dazzling, romantic fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald manages to captivate each new generation of readers. This critical introduction, written specifically for students, offers insightful yet accessible literary criticism for five novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon. A full chapter is devoted to examining each of these works, with an indepth discussion of character development, thematic concerns and plot structure. The introduction to each novel traces its genesis and the critical reception it received at the time it was written. The historical context sections examine the ways visionary works like The Great Gatsby offer both a chronicle and a critique of the attitudes, dreams, and illusions of American society during the period between the First and Second World Wars. Students will also get a vivid sense of how life and art converged in the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the man who christened the Jazz Age.