American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960

Cambridge University Press, 2/1/2018
EAN 9781108418232, ISBN10: 1108418236

Hardcover, 390 pages, 23.5 x 15.9 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960 explores the under-recognized complexity and variety of 1950s American literature by focalizing discussions through a series of keywords and formats that encourage readers to draw fresh connections among literary form and concepts, institutions, cultures, and social phenomena important to the decade. The first section draws attention to the relationship between literature and cultural phenomena that were new to the 1950s. The second section demonstrates the range of subject positions important in the 1950s, but still not visible in many accounts of the era. The third section explores key literary schools or movements associated with the decade, and explains how and why they developed at this particular cultural moment. The final section focuses on specific forms or genres that grew to special prominence during the 1950s. Taken together, the chapters in the four sections not only encourage us to rethink familiar texts and figures in new lights, but they also propose new archives for future study of the decade.

Introduction Steven Belletto
Part I. Cultural Issues
1. Cold War Arthur Redding
2. Mass media Katie Muth
3. When psychoanalysis was in vogue Mary Esteve
4. Towards decolonization Cathy J. Schlund-Vials
5. Religion Jason Stevens
6. Politics Tracy Floreani
Part II. Varieties of Literary Experience
7. WASP culture Keith Wilhite
8. African American literature Steven Belletto
9. Los(t) 'happy days'
Chicana/o literature, 1950–1960 Spencer R. Herrera
10. Asian American literature Tara Fickle
11. Gay and lesbian culture in the 1950s Michael Trask
12. Feminist literature Kathlene McDonald
13. Youth culture and the postwar drop-out narrative Denis Jonnes
Part III. Schools, Movements, and Sensibilities
14. Proto-postmodernism Robert Genter
15. Black mountain college as experimental arts community Anne Dewey
16. The beat movement Fiona Paton
17. Advertisements for themselves
poetry, confession, and the arts of publicity Christopher Grobe
18. New York School Ben Hickman
19. Literary exiles, cultural émigrés Martin Halliwell
20. The literature of commitment Alan Wald
Part IV. Formats and Genres
21. From consensus to conflict
little magazines in the 1950s Loren Glass
22. Best sellers and the 1950s Evan Brier
23. A genre comes of age
the maturation of science fiction in the 1950s Rob Latham.