The Contemporary American Comic Epic

The Contemporary American Comic Epic PDF Author: Elaine B. Safer
Publisher: Detroit : Wayne State University Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Elaine Safer's critically acclaimed work analyzes how 20th century epic writers make ironic use of traditional themes and patterns to develop a new genre, the American comic epic novel. Illustrating practical criticism at its best, the book closely scrutinizes six modern comic novels from John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis , and Ken Kesey. Safer supports her study with a firm grasp of the English epic of John Milton, the American epics of Cotton Mather and Walt Whitman, and the comic tradition of Rabelais, Cervantes, and Fielding. Her examination allows the modern American absurdist novel to be seen within a tradition and yet as distinctively modern. In addition, the book provides a clear and wide-ranging theoretical framework for the absurd and for black humor, terms too loosely defined in the past.

The Contemporary American Comic Epic

The Contemporary American Comic Epic PDF Author: Elaine B. Safer
Publisher: Detroit : Wayne State University Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book Here

Book Description
Elaine Safer's critically acclaimed work analyzes how 20th century epic writers make ironic use of traditional themes and patterns to develop a new genre, the American comic epic novel. Illustrating practical criticism at its best, the book closely scrutinizes six modern comic novels from John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis , and Ken Kesey. Safer supports her study with a firm grasp of the English epic of John Milton, the American epics of Cotton Mather and Walt Whitman, and the comic tradition of Rabelais, Cervantes, and Fielding. Her examination allows the modern American absurdist novel to be seen within a tradition and yet as distinctively modern. In addition, the book provides a clear and wide-ranging theoretical framework for the absurd and for black humor, terms too loosely defined in the past.

The Last American

The Last American PDF Author: John Wagner
Publisher: 2000 AD
ISBN: 9781781085448
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
WRITERS ALAN GRANT & JOHN WAGNER ARTIST MIKE MCMAHON I pledged allegiance to the flag of the United Sates of America, and to the republic for which it stood, look where it got me. Over twenty years have passed since a global war plunged the world into nuclear armageddon. Placed in suspended animation by his superiors, U.S. Army Captain, Ulysses Pilgrim, is woken by three military robot aides. Now Pilgrim has one last mission: wade through a post-holocaust U.S.A. and search for survivors. Written by John Wagner and Alan Grant and featuring the unique art of Mick McMahon, The Last American is a brilliant, yet terrifying look at the reality and futility of nuclear war.

The Quest for Epic in Contemporary American Fiction

The Quest for Epic in Contemporary American Fiction PDF Author: Catherine Morley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135899584
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
This volume explores the confluences between two types of literature in contemporary America: the novel and the epic. It analyses the tradition of the epic as it has evolved from antiquity, through Joyce to its American manifestations and describes how this tradition has impacted upon contemporary American writing.

Masters of American Comics

Masters of American Comics PDF Author: John Carlin
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030011317X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Presents the work of America's most popular and influential comic artists, and includes critical essays accompanying each artist's drawings.

Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby PDF Author: Tom Scioli
Publisher: Ten Speed Graphic
ISBN: 1984856901
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Told in vivid graphic novel form by a groundbreaking Eisner-nominated comics creator, the long-overdue biography of the legend who co-created Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and many more superhero favorites. “A fast-paced celebration of an underheralded legend within the comic-book industry.”—Kirkus Reviews NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LIBRARY JOURNAL This sweeping, full-color comic book biography tells the complete life story of Jack Kirby, co-creator of some of the most enduring superheroes and villains of the twentieth century for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and more. Critically acclaimed graphic novelist Tom Scioli breathes visual life into Kirby's life story--from his days growing up in New York during the Great Depression and discovering a love for science fiction and cartoons to his time on the frontlines in the European theatre of World War II where he experienced the type of action and adventure he'd later imbue his comic pages with, and on to his world-changing collaborations at Marvel with Stan Lee, where the pair redefined comics as a part of pop culture. Just as every great superhero needs a villain to overcome, Kirby's story also includes his struggles to receive the recognition and compensation that he believed his work deserved. Scioli captures his moves from Marvel to DC and back again, showing how Kirby himself and later his family fought to preserve his artistic legacy. Drawn from an unparalleled imagination and a life as exciting as his comic book tales, Kirby's super-creations have influenced subsequent generations of creatives in the comics field and beyond. Now, readers can experience the life and times of a comics titan through the medium that made him famous.

American Studies

American Studies PDF Author: Jack Salzman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521365598
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1124

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Book Description
This volume supplements the acclaimed three volume set published in 1986 and consists of an annotated listing of American Studies monographs published between 1984 and 1988. There are more than 6,000 descriptive entries in a wide range of categories: anthropology and folklore, art and architecture, history, literature, music, political science, popular culture, psychology, religion, science and technology, and sociology.

The Aesthetics of Middlebrow Fiction

The Aesthetics of Middlebrow Fiction PDF Author: Tom Perrin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137523956
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
During the Cold War, many popular American novels were labelled "middlebrow," leading to a general belief that these texts held less intellectual merit. Perrin debunks these unfair assumptions through works by James Michener, Harper Lee, and Leon Uris, arguing that such writers made a major contribution to the tradition of American literature.

The Cruft of Fiction

The Cruft of Fiction PDF Author: David Letzler
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496201647
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
A 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title What is the strange appeal of big books? The mega-novel, a genre of erudite tomes with encyclopedic scope, has attracted wildly varied responses, from fanatical devotion to trenchant criticism. Looking at intimidating mega-novel masterpieces from The Making of Americans to 2666, David Letzler explores reader responses to all the seemingly random, irrelevant, pointless, and derailing elements that comprise these mega-novels, elements that he labels "cruft" after the computer science term for junk code. In The Cruft of Fiction, Letzler suggests that these books are useful tools to help us understand the relationship between reading and attention. While mega-novel text is often intricately meaningful or experimental, sometimes it is just excessive and pointless. On the other hand, mega-novels also contain text that, though appearing to be cruft, turns out to be quite important. Letzler posits that this cruft requires readers to develop a sophisticated method of attentional modulation, allowing one to subtly distinguish between text requiring focused attention and text that must be skimmed or even skipped to avoid processing failures. The Cruft of Fiction shows how the attentional maturation prompted by reading mega-novels can help manage the information overload that increasingly characterizes contemporary life.

Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon PDF Author: Harold Bloom
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 143811611X
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Presents a collection of critical essays on the works of Thomas Pynchon.

A Companion to V.

A Companion to V. PDF Author: J. Kerry Grant
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820340774
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
To the uninitiated, Thomas Pynchon’s V. seems to defy comprehension with its open-ended and fragmented narrative, huge cast of characters (some 150 of them), and wide range of often obscure references. J. Kerry Grant’s Companion to “V.” takes us through the novel chapter by chapter, breaking through its daunting surface by summarizing events and clarifying Pynchon’s many allusions. The Companion draws extensively from existing critical and explicative work on V. to suggest the range of interpretations that the novel can support. The hundreds of notes that comprise the Companion are keyed to the three most widely cited editions of V. Most notes are interpretive, but some also provide historical and cultural contexts or help to resurrect other nuances of meaning. Because it does not constitute a particular “reading” of, or “take” on, the novel, the Companion will appeal to a wide range of users. Rather than attempting to make final sense of the novel, the Companion exposes and demystifies Pynchon’s intent to play with our conventional attitudes about fiction.