Political fiction and the American self
By: John Whalen-Bridge.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
Subjects: Political fiction, American -- History and criticism.; Politics and literature -- United States.; National characteristics, American, in literature.; Aesthetics, American.; Literary form.
Description: Examining political novels that have achieved (or been denied) canonical status, John Whalen-Bridge demonstrates how Herman Melville, Jack London, Norman Mailer, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood have grappled with the problem of balancing radicalism and art.

He shows that some books are more political than others, that some political novelists are more skillful than others, and that readers must allow for basic working distinctions between politics and aesthetics if we are to make useful judgments about which political novels to read - and why.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [187]-198) and index.
Table of contents: title: Political fiction as impurity in American literary criticism; title: Submerged revolution in Moby-Dick; title: How to read a revolutionary novel : The iron heel; title: Adamic purity as double-agent in Harlot's ghost; title: Invisible prophet : Sula peace, 1965; title: Conclusion : politics and interpretation in America.