American superrealism
Subtitle: Nathanael West and the politics of representation in the 1930s
By: Jonathan Veitch.
Series: The Wisconsin project on American writers
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Madison
Language: eng
Number of pages: 182
Subjects: West, Nathanael, 1903-1940 -- Criticism and interpretation.; Capitalism and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Politics and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; National characteristics, American, in literature.; Surrealism (Literature) -- United States.; Depressions in literature.; Economics in literature.; Mimesis in literature.
Description: Nathanael West has been hailed as "an apocalyptic writer," "a writer on the left," and "a precursor to postmodernism." But until now no critic has succeeded in fully engaging West's distinctive method of negation. In American Superrealism, Jonathan Veitch examines West's letters, short stories, screenplays and novels - some of which are discussed here for the first time - as well as West's collaboration with William Carlos Williams during their tenure as the editors of Contact.

Locating West in a lively, American avant-garde tradition that sketches from Marcel Duchamp to Andy Warhol, Veitch explores the possibilities and limitations of dada and surrealism - the use of readymades, scatalogical humor, human machines, "exquisite corpses" - as modes of social criticism.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-174) and index.