ly that often emphasizes the personalities and attrib-genteel tradition of upper-class values.
utes of its characters over the plot. Many domestic novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries employed Calvinism: A strict theological doctrine of the a certain amount of sentimentality — usually a
French Protestant church reformer John Calvin
blend of pathos and humor.
(1509-1564) and the basis of Puritan society. Calvin held that all humans were born sinful and only God’s Enlightenment: An 18th-century movement that grace (not the church) could save a person from hell.
focused on the ideals of good sense, benevolence,
and a belief in liberty, justice, and equality as the Canon: An accepted or sanctioned body of literary natural rights of man.
works considered to be permanently established and of high quality.
Existentialism: A philosophical movement embrac-ing the view that the suffering individual must cre-Captivity narrative: An account of capture by ate meaning in an unknowable, chaotic, and seem-Native-American tribes, such as those created by
ingly empty universe.
writers Mary Rowlandson and John Williams in colo-
nial times.
Expressionism: A post-World War I artistic movement, of German origin, that distorted appearances Character writing: A popular 17th- and 18th-centu-to communicate inner emotional states.
ry literary sketch of a character who represents a group or type.
Fabulist: A creator or writer of fables (short narratives with a moral, typically featuring animals as Chekhovian: Similar in style to the works of the characters) or of supernatural stories incorporating Russian author Anton Pavlovitch Chekhov. Chekhov
elements of myth and legend.
(1860-1904), one of the major short story writers and dramatists of modern times, is known for both his
Faulknerian: In a style reminiscent of William humorous one-act plays and his full-length
Faulkner (1897-1962), one of America's major 20th-
tragedies.
century novelists, who chronicled the decline and
decay of the aristocratic South. Unlike earlier
Civil War: The war (1861-1865) between the north-regionalists who wrote about local color, Faulkner ern U.S. states, which remained in the Union, and
created literary works that are complex in form and the southern states, which seceded and formed the
often violent and tragic in content.
Confederacy. The victory of the North ended slavery and preserved the Union.
157
GLOSSARY
Faust: A literary character who sold his soul to the Hudibras: A mock-heroic satire by English writer devil in order to become all-knowing, or godlike; pro-Samuel Butler (1612-1680). Hudibras was imitated
tagonist of plays by English Renaissance dramatist by early American revolutionary-era satirists.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) and German
Romantic writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-
Iambic: A metrical foot consisting of one short syl-1832).
lable followed by one long syllable, or of one
unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
Feminism: The view, articulated in the 19th century, that women are inherently equal to men and
Image: Concrete representation of an object, or deserve equal rights and opportunities. More recent-something seen.
ly, feminism is a social and political movement that took hold in the United States in the late 1960s and Imagists: A group of mainly American poets, includ-soon spread globally.
ing Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell, who used sharp
visual images and colloquial speech; active from
Fugitives: Poets who collaborated in The Fugitive, a 1912 to 1914.
magazine published between 1922 and 1928 in
Nashville, Tennessee. The collaborators, including Iowa Writers’ Workshop: A graduate program in such luminaries as John Crowe Ransom, Robert
creative writing at the University of Iowa in which Penn Warren, and Allen Tate, rejected “northern”
talented, generally young writers work on manu-
urban, commercial values, which they felt had taken scripts and exchange ideas about writing with each over America, and called for a return to the land and other and with established poets and prose writers.
to American traditions that could be found in the
South.
Irony: A meaning, often contradictory, concealed behind the apparent meaning of a word or phrase.
Genre: A category of literary forms (novel, lyric poem, epic, for example).
Kafkaesque: Reminiscent of the style of Czech-born novelist and short story writer Franz Kafka (1883-Global literature: Contemporary writing from the 1924). Kafka’s works portray the oppressiveness of many cultures of the world. Selections include litera-modern life, and his characters frequently find them-ture ascribed to various religious, ideological, and selves in threatening situations for which there is no ethnic groups within and across geographic bound-explanation and from which there is no escape.
aries.
Knickerbocker School: New York City-based writ-Hartford Wits: A conservative late 18th-century liters of the early 1800s who imitated English and
erary circle centered at Yale College in Connecticut European literary fashions.
(also known as the Connecticut Wits).
Language poetry: Poetry that stretches language to Hip-hop poetry: Poetry that is written on a page but reveal its potential for ambiguity, fragmentation, and performed for an audience. Hip-hop poetry, with its self-assertion within chaos. Language poets favor
roots in African-American rhetorical tradition,
open forms and multicultural texts; they appropriate stresses rhythm, improvisation, free association,
images from popular culture and the media, and
rhymes, and the use of hybrid language.
refashion them.
158
GLOSSARY
McCarthy era: The period of the Cold War (late Multicultural: The creative interchange of numer-1940s and early 1950s) during which U.S. Senator
ous ethnic and racial subcultures.
Joseph McCarthy pursued American citizens whom
he and his followers suspected of being members or Myth: A legendary narrative, usually of gods and former members of, or sympathizers with, the
heroes, or a theme that expresses the ideology of a Communist party. His efforts included the creation of culture.
“blacklists” in various professions — rosters of people who were excluded from working in those fields.
Naturalism: A late 19th- and early 20th-century lit-McCarthy ultimately was denounced by his Senate
erary approach of French origin that vividly depicted colleagues.
social problems and viewed human beings as help-
less victims of larger social and economic forces.
Metafiction: Fiction that emphasizes the nature of fiction, the techniques and conventions used to write Neoclassicism: An 18th-century artistic movement, it, and the role of the author.
associated with the Enlightenment, drawing on classical models and emphasizing reason, harmony, and
Metaphysical poetry: Intricate type of 17th-century restraint.
English poetry employing wit and unexpected
images.
New England: The region of the United States comprising the present-day northeastern states of
Middle Colonies: The present-day U.S. mid-Atlantic Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
states — New York, New Jersey, Maryland,
Rhode Island, and Connecticut and noted for its early Pennsylvania, and Delaware — known originally for
industrialization and intellectual life. Traditionally, commercial activities centered around New York City New England is the home of the shrewd, indepen-and Philadelphia.
dent, thrifty “Yankee” trader.
Midwest: The central area of the United States, from New Journalism: A style of writing made popular in the Ohio River to the Rocky Mountains, including
the United States in the 1960s by Tom Wolfe, Truman the Prairie and Great Plains regions (also known as Capote, and Norman Mailer, who used the tech-the Middle West).
niques of story-telling and characterization of fiction writers in creating nonfiction works.
Minimalism: A writing style, exemplified in the works of Raymond Carver, that is characterized by
Objectivist: A mid-20th-century poetic movement, spareness and simplicity.
associated with William Carlos Williams, stressing images and colloquial speech.
Mock-epic: A parody using epic form (also known as mock-heroic).
Old Norse: The ancient Norwegian language of the sagas, virtually identical to modern Icelandic.
Modernism: An international cultural movement after World War I expressing disillusionment with
Oral Tradition: Transmission by word of mouth; tra-tradition and interest in new technologies and
dition passed down through generations; verbal folk visions.
tradition.
Motif: A recurring element, such as an image, Plains Region: The middle region of the United theme, or type of incident.
States that slopes eastward from the Rocky
Mountains to the Prairie.
Muckrakers: American journalists and novelists (1900-1912) whose spotlight on corruption in business and government led to social reform.
159
GLOSSARY
Poet Laureate: An individual appointed as a con-Romanticism: An early 19th-century movement that sultant in poetry to the U.S. Library of Congress for a elevated the individual, the passions, and the inner term of generally one year. During his or her term, life. Romanticism, a reaction against neoclassicism, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national con-stressed strong emotion, imagination, freedom from sciousness to a greater appreciation of poetry.
classical correctness in art forms, and rebellion
against social conventions.
Poetry slam: A spoken-word poetry competition.
Saga: An ancient Scandinavian narrative of histori-Postmodernism: A media-influenced aesthetic sencal or mythical events.
sibility of the late 20th century characterized by open-endedness and collage. Postmodernism ques-Salem Witch Trials: Proceedings for alleged witch-tions the foundations of cultural and artistic form craft held in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692.
through self-referential irony and the juxtaposition Nineteen persons were hanged and numerous oth-of elements from popular culture and electronic techers were intimidated into confessing or accusing
nology.
others of witchcraft.
Prairie: The level, unforested farm region of the Self-help book: A book telling readers how to midwestern United States.
improve their lives through their own efforts. The self-help book has been a popular American genre
Primitivism: A belief that nature provides truer and from the mid-19th century to the present.
more healthful models than does culture. An exam-
ple is the myth of the “noble savage.”
Separatists: A strict Puritan sect of the 16th and 17th centuries that preferred to separate from the Puritans: English religious and political reformers Church of England rather than reform. Many of those who fled their native land in search of religious free-who first settled America were Separatists.
dom, and who settled and colonized New England in
the 17th century.
Slave narrative: The first black literary prose genre in the United States, featuring accounts of the lives Reformation: A northern European political and of African Americans under slavery.
religious movement of the 15th through 17th cen-
turies that attempted to reform Catholicism; eventu-South: A region of the United States comprising the ally gave rise to Protestantism.
states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North
Reflexive: Self-referential. A literary work is reflex-Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and ive when it refers to itself.
West Virginia, as well as eastern Texas.
Regional writing: Writing that explores the cus-Surrealism: A European literary and artistic move-toms and landscape of a region of the United States.
ment that uses illogical, dreamlike images and
events to suggest the unconscious.
Revolutionary War: The War of Independence, 1775-1783, fought by the American colonies against Syllabic versification: Poetic meter based on the Great Britain.
number of syllables in a line.
Romance: Emotionally heightened, symbolic American Synthesis: A blending of two senses; used by Edgar novels associated with the Romantic period.
Allan Poe and others to suggest hidden correspon-
dences and create exotic effects.
160
GLOSSARY
Tall tale: A humorous, exaggerated story common Transcendentalism: A broad, philosophical move-on the American frontier, often focusing on cases of ment in New England during the Romantic era
superhuman strength.
(peaking between 1835 and 1845). It stressed the
role of divinity in nature and the individual’s intu-Theme: An abstract idea embodied in a literary ition, and exalted feeling over reason.
work.
Trickster: A cunning character of tribal folk narra-Tory: A wealthy pro-English faction in America at the tives (for example those of African Americans and
time of the Revolutionary War in the late 1700s.
Native Americans) who breaks cultural codes of
behavior; often a culture hero.
Vision song: A poetic song that members of some Native-American tribes created when purifying
themselves through solitary fasting and meditation.
161
162
INDEX
Abbey, Edward 148
Ammons, A.R. 80, 130
Abinader, Elmaz 155
Among the White Moon Faces (Shirley Geok-lin Lim) 154
“Above Pate Valley” (Gary Snyder) 86
Anaya, Rudolfo 91, 116
“Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” (Vachel Lindsay) 57
Ancient Evenings (Norman Mailer) 110
Absalom, Absalom! (William Faulkner) 72
Anderson, Laurie 95
Abu-Jaber, Diana 155
Anderson, Sherwood 55, 71, 75
Accidental Tourist, The (Anne Tyler) 142
Andrews, Bruce 95
Acker, Kathy 142
Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) 138
Actual, The (Saul Bellow) 103
Angelou, Maya 91, 93, 116
Adams, Abigail 25
Angels in America: Part One: Millennium Approaches Adams, Henry 53
(Tony Kushner) 139
Address to the Negroes of the State of New York, An Angels in America: Part Two: Perestroika (Tony Kushner) 139
(Jupiter Hammon) 13
Angle of Repose (Wallace Stegner) 147
Adventures of Augie March, The (Saul Bellow) 103
Animal Dreams (Barbara Kingsolver) 149
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) 40, 48-49
Annie John (Jamaica Kincaid) 152
Affliction (Russell Banks) 140
Another Country (James Baldwin) 102
Affluent Society, The (John Kenneth Galbraith) 101
Another You (Ann Beattie) 143
Afterlife and Other Stories, The (John Updike) 139
Antin, David 95
Age of Innocence, The (Edith Wharton) 53
Antrim, Donald 141
Aiiieeeee! (Frank Chin, ed.) 94
Anywhere But Here (Mona Simpson) 147
Albee, Edward 117, 119
Anzaldúa, Gloria 91, 149
Alcott, Bronson 27, 28
“Appalachian Book of the Dead” (Charles Wright) 125
Alcott, Louisa May 27
Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, An Alexander, Meena 154
(Lydia Child) 43
Alexie, Sherman 152
“Applicant, The” (Sylvia Plath) 83
Ali, Agha Shahid 127
Appointment in Samarra (John O’Hara) 102
Allen, Donald 86, 89
Arabian Jazz (Diana Abu-Jaber) 155
Allende, Isabel 153
Ariel (Sylvia Plath) 83
Allison, Dorothy 144
Armantrout, Rae 122
All My Sons (Arthur Miller) 98
Armies of the Night, The (Norman Mailer) 107, 109
All the King’s Men (Robert Penn Warren) 98
Arrowsmith (Sinclair Lewis) 72, 73
All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) 144
Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown) 22
All the Sad Young Men (F. Scott Fitzgerald) 70
Ashbery, John 80, 88, 122
Alurista 91
Ash-Wednesday (T.S. Eliot) 64
Alvarez, Julia 153
As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner) 72
Always Running (Luis Rodriguez) 151
Assistant, The (Bernard Malamud) 104
Amateur Marriage, The (Anne Tyler) 142
Atlantis (Mark Doty) 128
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The (Michael Chabon) 143
“At Melville’s Tomb” (Hart Crane) 68
Ambassadors, The (Henry James) 52
“At the Fishhouses” (Elizabeth Bishop) 85
America Is in the Heart (Carlos Bulosan) 154
“At the Gym” (Mark Doty) 128
American, The (Henry James) 52
Atwood, Margaret 124
Americana (Don DeLillo) 141
Auster, Paul 138, 142
American Buffalo (David Mamet) 119
Autobiography (Benjamin Franklin) 16, 18
American Daughter, An (Wendy Wasserstein) 140
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (James Weldon Johnson) 59
American Dream, The (Edward Albee) 117
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The (Ernest Gaines) 111
American Geography (Jedidiah Morse) 21
Autobiography of My Mother, The (Jamaica Kincaid) 152
“American Liberty” (Philip Freneau) 20
Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, The (Oliver Wendell Holmes) 33
American Pastoral (Philip Roth) 111
Awake and Sing! (Clifford Odets) 78
American Poetry in the Twentieth Century (Kenneth Rexroth) 87
Awakening, The (Kate Chopin) 50, 51
American Primitive (Mary Oliver) 130
Awful Rowing Toward God, The (Anne Sexton) 83
American Tragedy, An (Theodore Dreiser) 47, 54-55, 57, 78
Ayumi: A Japanese American Anthology (Janice Mirikitani, ed.) 94
America Play, The (Suzan-Lori Parks) 140
163
INDEX
Babbitt (Sinclair Lewis) 60, 72, 73
Blue Pastures (Mary Oliver) 130
Baca, Jimmy Santiago 125
Bluest Eye, The (Toni Morrison) 114
Baldwin, James 46, 102
Bly, Robert 89, 129
Baldwin, Joseph 49
Bone Black (bell hooks) 145
Bambara, Toni Cade 115
Bonesetter’s Daughter, The (Amy Tan) 150
Banks, Russell 140
Bonfire of the Vanities, The (Tom Wolfe) 108
Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones) 91, 93, 117-118
Book of Daniel, The (E.L. Doctorow) 112
Barks, Coleman 129
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
Barren Ground (Ellen Glasgow) 58
(Gloria Anzaldúa) 149
Barth, John 105, 108,109-110, 113, 138
Bostonians, The (Henry James) 52
Barthelme, Donald 108, 138
Boston Marriage (David Mamet) 119
Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, The (David Rabe) 119
Boyle, T. Coraghessan 151
Bass, Rick 148
Brackenridge, Hugh Henry 20
Bastard Out of Carolina (Dorothy Allison) 144
Bradford, William 6-7, 9
Baumgardner, Jennifer 137
Bradley, David 143
Bausch, Richard 142
Bradstreet, Anne 7, 24
Beach Music (Pat Conroy) 145
“Brahma” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) 28
Bean Trees, The (Barbara Kingsolver) 149
Brautigan, Richard 108
Bear, The (William Faulkner) 49
Brazil-Maru (Karen Tei Yamashita) 150
Beattie, Ann 138, 143
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Truman Capote) 107
Beautiful and the Damned, The (F. Scott Fitzgerald) 70
Brent, Linda (see Jacobs, Harriet)
Bech: A Book (John Updike) 106
“Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, The” (Stephen Crane) 54
Bech at Bay (John Updike) 106
Bride of the Innisfallen, The (Eudora Welty) 100
Bech Is Back (John Updike) 106
Bridge, The (Hart Crane) 68
Bell, Christine 153
Bridge of San Luis Rey, The (Thornton Wilder) 78
Bellefleur (Joyce Carol Oates) 114
Bridget Jones’s Diary (Helen Fielding) 137
Bell Jar, The (Sylvia Plath) 83
Brief and True Report of the New-Found Land of Virginia, A Bellow, Saul 101, 103-104, 109, 116
(Thomas Hariot) 4
Beloved (Toni Morrison) 115
Brigadier and the Golf Widow, The (John Cheever) 105
Beneath a Single Moon 94
Bright Lights, Big City (Jay McInerney) 112
Berriault, Gina 150
“British Prison Ship, The” (Philip Freneau) 20
Berryman, John 82, 84
“Broken Heart, The” (James Merrill) 80
Beverley, Robert 13
Brooks, Gwendolyn 81, 133
Bidart, Frank 132
Broom of the System, The (David Foster Wallace) 141
Biglow Papers, First Series (James Russell Lowell) 33
“Brothers and Keepers” (John Edgar Wideman) 143
Big Money, The (John Dos Passos) 73
Brown, Charles Brockden 15, 21, 22
Billy Bathgate (E.L. Doctorow) 113
Brown, Dan 136
Bishop, Elizabeth 68, 82, 85, 121, 122, 133
Brown, James Willie, Jr. (see Komunyakaa, Yusef)
Black Boy (Richard Wright) 75
Brown Girl, Brownstones (Paule Marshall) 152
Blackburn, Paul 86
Brownson, Orestes 27
“Black Cat, The” (Edgar Allan Poe) 42
Bryant, William Cullen 21
Black Looks (bell hooks) 145
Buckley, Christopher 143
“Black Snake, The” (Mary Oliver) 131
Bullet Park (John Cheever) 106
Black Tickets (Jayne Anne Phillips) 144
Bulosan, Carlos 154
Bless Me, Ultima (Rudolfo Anaya) 116
Buried Child (Sam Shepard) 118
Blithedale Romance, The (Nathaniel Hawthorne) 27, 38
Burroughs, William 79, 87, 107
Blonde (Joyce Carol Oates) 114
Bushnell, Candace 137
Blood Meridien (Cormac McCarthy) 144