A Companion to the American Short Story

Bendixen, Alfred / Nagel, James (Editor)

Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture

1. Edition February 2010
534 Pages, Hardcover
Professional Book

ISBN: 978-1-4051-1543-8

John Wiley & Sons

Short Description

A Companion to the American Short Story traces the development of this versatile literary genre over the past two centuries. Written by leading critics in the field, it explores a wide range of writers, from Edgar Allen Poe and Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin, and Charles Chesnutt at the end of the nineteenth century. The Companion takes account of cutting edge approaches to literary studies and contributes to the ongoing redefinition of the American canon. This volume presents an important new consideration of the role of the short story in the literary history of American literature.

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Further versions

A Companion to the American Short Story traces the development of this versatile literary genre over the past 200 years.
* Sets the short story in context, paying attention to the interaction of cultural forces and aesthetic principles
* Contributes to the ongoing redefinition of the American canon, with close attention to the achievements of women writers as well as such important genres as the ghost story and detective fiction
* Embraces diverse traditions including African-American, Jewish-American, Latino, Native-American, and regional short story writing
* Includes a section focused on specific authors and texts, from Edgar Allen Poe to John Updike

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgments

Part I: The Nineteenth Century

Part II: The Transition into the New Century

Part III: The Twentieth Century

Part IV: Expansive Considerations

Index

Alfred Bendixen, Professor of English at Texas A& M University, is the founder of the American Literature Association, which he currently serves as Executive Director. His books include Haunted Women (1985), an edition of the composite novel, The Whole Family (1986), "The Amber Gods" and other stories by Harriet Prescott Spofford, (1989), and Edith Wharton: New Critical Essays (1992). He is the associate editor of the Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature (1999), the co-editor of the recently published Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing (2009), and one of the five contributing editors to the forthcoming Wadsworth Anthology of American Literature.

James Nagel is the Eidson Distinguished Professor of American Literature at the University of Georgia. Early in his career he founded the scholarly journal Studies in American Fiction and the widely influential series Critical Essays on American Literature. Among his twenty books are Stephen Crane and Literary Impressionism, Hemingway in Love and War (which was made into a Hollywood film directed by Lord Richard Attenborough), and The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle. He has published some eighty articles in the field, and he has lectured on American literature in fifteen countries. In 2005, he was given the lifetime achievement award for contributions to the field by the American Literature Association.

A. Bendixen, Texas A&M University, USA; J. Nagel, University of Georgia, USA