Critical Perspectives in American Literature (Hardcover)  | Released: 2004

Wherever there are people there will be a literature. A literature is the record of human experience, and people have always been impelled to write down their impressions of life. They do so in diaries and letters, in pamphlets and books, and in essays, poems, plays, and fiction. In this respect American literature is like any other, though it displays many characteristics that are similar and many that are dissimilar to the literary tradition of other nations. American Literature has witnessed several trends and movements: • Puritan/Colonial (1650—1750) • Revolutionary/Age of Reason (1750—1800) • Romanticism (1800—1860) • American Renaissance/Transcen-dentalism (1840—1860) • Realism (1855—1900) (Period of civil war and post-war period) • The Moderns (1900—1950) • Harlem Renaissance (parallel to Modernism) (1920s) • Postmodernism (1950 to present) The present Volume concentrates on the American literature of 19th and 20th centuries and includes critical papers on authors widely prescribed in the Indian universities. As we are aware, the beauty of any literary work is that it leads to fresh interpretation every time when viewed from a different angle. The scholarly and critical analysis presented on the works of several American literary masters such as Emerson, Hawthorn, Poe, Whitman, Hemingway, O’Neill, Miller, Morrison, Walker, etc., by experts in the field of English Literature would unquestionably enable the readers gain a new insight into the interpretation of literary works. While serving as an additional resource to the teachers of American literature, this Volume is expected to assist the students and researchers in the domain of American literature.Table of Contents: 1. Delineation of Nature in Emerson’s Poetry–D.S. KAINTURA; 2. Treatment of Sin, Isolation and Purgation in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter–PUSHP LATA; 3. Three Notes on Poe and Whitman–MICHAEL MCGLASSON; 4. Edgar Allan Poe’s Prescription for a Good Night’s Sleep: “The Premature Burial”–ROBERT DENSMORE BRILL; 5. A Comparative Study of Death wish in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson and John Keats–BINOD MISHRA; 6. The Portrait of a Lady: A Journey from Self-deception to Self-destruction–DEVIKA; 7. Symbolic Elements in Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Hairy Ape’–MEERA BANERJI; 8. O’Neill’s Thirst: A New Historicist Approach–RAMA KUNDU; 9. The Question of Gender, Power and Possession in Ernest Hemingway–SANJAY KUMAR; 10. An Impeccable Appeal of Katherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms–SANGEETA SHARMA; 11. Spirit of Affirmation in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and All My Sons–VINOD KUMAR MAHESHWARI; 12. Reflection of Reality Through Symbolism in Death of a Salesman–SUSHILA RATHORE; 13. The Sound of One Hand Clapping: Zen Buddhism in the Writings of Salinger –SATISH C. AIKANT; 14. New Modes of Perception: A Study of Norman Mailer’s The Armies of the Night–ANJU JAIN; 15. The Significance of Biblical Paradigms in Toni Morrison’s Beloved –PAUL DHANASEKARAN; 16. Toni Morrison Writes B(l)ack: Beloved and Slavery’s Dehumanizing Discourse of Animality–TUIRE VALKEAKARI; 17. A Journey from Violence Against Women to the Women Against Violence in the Fiction of Alice Walker (with Special Reference to Meridian)–NEERU TANDON AND NIDHI KAPOOR; Contributors