A Cultural History of the American Novel, 1890–1940: Henry James to William Faulkner

by David Minter

A Cultural History of the American Novel interweaves a wide selection of the novels of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with a series of cultural events ranging from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show to the "Southern Renaissance" of the 1930s. Minter rereads the novels of the period as works of art that arise from and that remain embedded in culture, arguing conversely that cultural events differ in degree but not in kind from novels. Portrayed as provocative fusions of the real and the imagined, novels and events are made to yield insight into the structures and procedures of American society as well as the structures and procedures of the American imagination, during a critical era of national transformation.

296 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 1994

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at how history and literature are linked, such as how the 1920s or the Depression came through in themes of many novels from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.