Description
Book SynopsisFocusing on the works of Herman Melville, Gore Vidal, Russell Banks, Lionel Trilling, and Philip Roth, the author scrutinizes a number of critical studies and makes a cogent case for a more interdisciplinary approach to the American political novel that focuses less on the politics of representation and more on the representation of politics.
Trade Review[A] clear, often brilliant study... Recommended CHOICE
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction. Liberalism and the Problem of Tradition in American Literature Part 1. The Nineteenth-Century Context 1. Elusive Republicanism: Thomas Jefferson and the Foundations of American Politics in Gore Vidal's Burr 2. "Our Divine Equality": Russell Banks's Cloudsplitter and the Redemptive Liberalism of the Lincoln Republic Part 2. The Twentieth-Century Context 3. Ideas in Modulation: Marxism and Liberal Revaluation in Lionel Trilling's The Middle of the Journey 4. Liberalism Betrayed: Neoconservatism and the Postwar American Left in Philip Roth's American Trilogy Conclusion. Writing the Republic: Moby Dick and the Form of American Political Fiction Notes Bibliography Index
