Facing the abyss : American literature and culture in the 1940s

Resource Information

The work Facing the abyss : American literature and culture in the 1940s represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

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Label

Facing the abyss : American literature and culture in the 1940s

Title remainder

American literature and culture in the 1940s

Statement of responsibility

George Hutchinson

Title variation

American literature and culture in the 1940s

Creator

• trueHutchinson, George, 1953-

Author

• trueHutchinson, George, 1953-

Subject

• trueAlienation (Social psychology)
• American literature
• American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism
• Civilization
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• trueDisillusionment
• trueEthnic identity
• History
• trueIntellectual life
• trueLiterary criticism
• Literature -- History and criticism
• Literature and society
• Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Popular culture
• Popular culture -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• truePostwar life
• United States
• trueUnited States -- Civilization -- 20th century
• trueWorld War II
• 1900-1999

Genre

• trueHistory
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Language

eng

Summary

"Mythologized as the era of the "good war" and the "Greatest Generation," the 1940s are frequently understood as a more heroic, uncomplicated time in American history. Yet just below the surface, a sense of dread, alienation, and the haunting specter of radical evil permeated American art and literature. Writers returned home from World War II and gave form to their disorienting experiences of violence and cruelty. They probed the darkness that the war opened up and confronted bigotry, existential guilt, ecological concerns, and fear about the nature and survival of the human race. In Facing the Abyss, George Hutchinson offers readings of individual works and the larger intellectual and cultural scene to reveal the 1940s as a period of profound and influential accomplishment. Facing the Abyss examines the relation of aesthetics to politics, the idea of universalism, and the connections among authors across racial, ethnic, and gender divisions. Modernist and avant-garde styles were absorbed into popular culture as writers and artists turned away from social realism to emphasize the process of artistic creation. Hutchinson explores a range of important writers, from Saul Bellow and Mary McCarthy to Richard Wright and James Baldwin. African American and Jewish novelists critiqued racism and anti-Semitism, women writers pushed back on the misogyny unleashed during the war, and authors such as Gore Vidal and Tennessee Williams reflected a new openness in the depiction of homosexuality. The decade also witnessed an awakening of American environmental and ecological consciousness. Hutchinson argues that a common belief in art's ability to communicate the universal in particulars united the most important works of literature and art during the 1940s" --

Tone

• trueReflective

Writing style

• trueComprehensive
• trueRichly detailed

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

810.9/0052

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography