The Routledge Introduction to the American Novel

D. Quentin Miller

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032181035
• eBook ISBN: 9781040035580
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The Routledge Introduction to the American Novel provides a comprehensive and engaging guide to this cornerstone literary genre, reframing our understanding of the American novel and its evolving traditions. This volume aims to engage productive classroom discussion, including:

• What differentiates the American novel from its European predecessors and traditions from other parts of the world?
• How have the related myths of the American Dream and the Great American Novel affected understanding of the tradition over time?
• How do American novels by or about women, racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and members of lower social classes challenge the American cultural monomyth?
• How do experimental novels and eco-conscious novels alter the American novel tradition?

Rethinking historical trends and debates surrounding the American novel, this text delivers a persuasive case for why it's important to reevaluate the American novelistic tradition. The Routledge Introduction to the American Novel offers a much-needed update to the history and future of this literary form.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Long, Annoying Shadow of Europe and the Search for Greatness
• 2 The American Dream: A Myth of Upward Mobility and Middle-Class Happiness
• 3 Domestic Discontentment: The Marriage Plot Anti-Dream
• 4 “Not a Story to Pass On”: Slavery and the American Novel
• 5 Class, Race, and the Anti-Dream Narrative
• 6 Multiethnic America
• 7 Old (and New) Weird America: Experimentation and Voices from the Margins
• 8 Our Fragile Earth: Eco-Consciousness and the American Novel
• Works Cited
• Index