A History of American Literature: 1950 to the Present

Featuring works from notable authors as varied as Salinger and the Beats to Vonnegut, Capote, Morrison, Rich, Walker, Eggers, and DeLillo, A History of American Literature: 1950 to the Present offers a comprehensive analysis of the wide range of literary works produced in the United States over the last six decades and a fascinating survey of the dramatic changes during America′s transition from the innocence of the fifties to the harsh realities of the first decade of the new millennium. Author Linda Wagner–Martin a highly acclaimed authority on all facets of modern American literature covers major works of drama, poetry, fiction, non–fiction, memoirs, and popular genres such as science fiction and detective novels. Viewing works produced during this fertile literary period from a wide–ranging perspective, Wagner–Martin considers literature in relation to such issues as the politics of civil rights, feminism, sexual preferences, and race– and gender–based marketing. She also places a special emphasis on works produced during the twenty–first century, and writings influenced by recent historic events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, and the global financial crisis. With its careful balance of scholarly precision and accessibility, A History of American Literature: 1950 to the Present provides readers of all levels with rich and revealing insights into the diversity of literary forms and influences that characterize postmodern America.

Illustrations ix

Preface xi

1 Locating Contemporary Literature 1

American Poetry During the 1950s 13

A. Poems of the Mind and the Body 13

B. The Farthest Edge: The Beats and the Confessional School 19

American Theater During the 1950s 25

American Fiction During the 1950s 28

A. Fiction and the War 28

B. Class and Sexuality in the Novel 32

C. The Novel, Jewish and Southern 38

2 The Sixties and the Necessities of Change 47

Theater of the 1960s 53

African American Writing in the 1960s 58

1960s Fiction, Mainstream Markers 69

Feminism 74

3 Conventions and Eruptions 79

Poetry of the Anti–War and Feminist Years 81

Feminist Fictions 90

Postmodern Fictions 101

Science Fiction and Alternative Worlds 112

The New Journalism 123

Theater During the 1970s 129

4 New Ages and Old 139

Memoir: Another New Direction 142

Crime and Detective Fiction, American Style 150

Theater During the 1980s 168

5 The 1980s, Ethnicity and Change 175

Asian American Writing 178

Native American Writing 183

Mexican American Writing (i.e., Latino/Latina) 189

African American Writing 194

Poetry in the 1980s 203

Fiction in the 1980s 214

6 The 1990s and the Sexual 225

Sexual Preferences and Social/Legal Issues 227

Theater of the 1990s 235

The Poem at the Turn into the Twenty–First Century 242

Story at the Turn into the Twenty–First Century 250

Southern Literature at the Turn into the Twenty–First Century 260

7 The Twenty–First Century 277

The Story of 9/11 and Its Aftermath 286

Theater 2000 2010 307

Poetry 2000 2010 311

Memoir and Life–Writing 2000 2010 319

Fiction 2000 2010 326

References 353

Index 365

Linda Wagner–Martin is Frank Borden Hanes Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. She is the recipient of Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Bunting Institute, and other fellowships, as well as holding the Hubbell Medal for American Literature. She writes widely on twentieth–century American literature, biography, women′s writing, and pedagogy. Her publications include " Favored Strangers": Gertrude Stein and Her Family (1995), The Oxford Companion to Women′s Writing in the United States and its anthology(1995), Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life (1999/2003), Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (2004), Emily Dickinson, A Literary Life (2013)  Barbara Kingsolver′s World: Nature, Art and the 21st Century (2014) and Toni Morrison and the Maternal, from the Bluest Eye to Home, 2014.