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The American Novel Now: Reading Contemporary American Fiction Since 1980

ISBN: 978-1-444-31790-9

January 2010

Wiley-Blackwell

248 pages

Description

The American Novel Now navigates the vast terrain of the American novel since 1980, exploring issues of identity, history, family, nation, and aesthetics, as well as cultural movements and narrative strategies from over seventy different authors and novels.

  • Discusses an exceptionally wide-range of authors and novels, from established figures to significant emerging writers
  • Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Louise Erdrich, Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Kathy Acker and many more
  • Explores the range of themes and styles offered in the wealth of contemporary American fiction since 1980, in both mainstream and experimental writings
  • Reflects the liveliness and diversity of American fiction in the last thirty years
  • Written in a style that makes it ideal for students and scholars, while also accessible for general readers
About the Author
Patrick O'Donnell is Professor of English and American Literature at Michigan State University, where he served as department chair from 1997 to 2007. He has written and edited a number of books and collections on contemporary American fiction and film, including Latent Destinies: Cultural Paranoia in Contemporary U.S. Fiction (2000), Echo Chambers: Figuring Voice in Modern Narrative (1992), Passionate Doubts: Designs of Interpretation in Contemporary American Fiction (1986), and New Essays on The Crying of Lot 49 (edited, 1991). He is an associate editor of The Columbia History of the American Novel (1991), a former editor of Modern Fiction Studies, and a co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Fiction (forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell).
Features
  • Discusses an exceptionally wide-range of authors and novels, from established figures to significant emerging writers
  • Featured authors include Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Louise Erdrich, Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Kathy Acker and many more
  • Explores the range of themes and styles offered in the wealth of contemporary American fiction since 1980, in both mainstream and experimental writings
  • Reflects the liveliness and diversity of American fiction in the last thirty years
  • Written in a style that makes it ideal for students and scholars, while also accessible for general readers