The problems and ideologies that define American culture were formed in the 19th century.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on American literature
Displaying 1 - 20 of 26 articles
Some of the most exciting fiction and memoir is being done in the form of graphic novels. Here are some of the very best.
Status anxiety and conspicuous consumption generate a dazzling, often surreal poetry in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. But Gatsby’s rise and fall exposes deep fissures underlying the American Dream.
In some ways, perhaps Morrison is even more relevant in South African universities today than she’s ever been.
While clear-eyed about the country’s injustices, Melville never succumbed to cynicism. On the author’s bicentennial, American readers could use a dose of his ability to fuse realism with idealism.
Catch 22 as seen by George Clooney is just far too good looking.
Walt Whitman is perhaps America’s most admired poet. His work, now praised for its themes of equality and democracy, was once shunned for its experimental verse and discussion of sexuality.
Sharp-eyed Victorian writers exploded the myth of tranquil village life.
Bilocation is a popular Christian myth but also one that is known to modern physics.
Spanish-speaking writers have made exceptional contributions to American literature. Here are the best Latin American and Latino authors you probably haven’t heard of.
His recent death will lead to some old debates about his work returning – but are they still valid?
Whether you loved him or hated him, his canonical status is beyond question.
George Saunders has become the second American to win the Man Booker.
Hopper’s brand of Americanism was a counterpoint to American optimism. Fifty years after his death, his legacy lives on.
He probably would have been amused by – and maybe even befriended – Trump the entertainer. Trump the president? Not so much.
The American writer remains as elusive 100 years after his death as he was at the time.
Why the death of Harper Lee is bigger news than the deaths of many major writers.
Slated to be demolished this year, a crumbling brick building on Ole Miss’ campus once operated as a power plant where novelist William Faulkner shoveled coal – and feverishly wrote.
Anne Tyler’s Booker short-listed novel is an exquisite meditation on family life.
Male friendship is often overlooked in the 20th-century novel, but in her Booker short-listed novel Yanagihara places it centre.
Top contributors
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Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
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Professor of Contemporary Literature, University of Reading
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Professor in English Literature, University of Essex
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Lecturer in Contemporary Literature, La Trobe University
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Professor of Philosophy and Intellectual History, Manchester Metropolitan University
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Department Chair of English, Meredith College
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Director of Creative Writing, Vanderbilt University
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Lecturer in English (contemporary period), University of Bristol
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Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English, Vanderbilt University
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Senior Lecturer, University of Aberdeen
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Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature, Newcastle University
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Senior Lecturer in Twentieth to Twenty-First-Century Writing, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies, University of Mississippi
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Associate Professor, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University
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Lecturer in American Studies, Loughborough University
