1st Edition
Vital Contact Downclassing Journeys in American Literature from Melville to Richard Wright
By Patrick Chura
Copyright 2006
250 Pages
by
Routledge
250 Pages
by
Routledge
250 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
The book analyzes American literature about middle or upper class characters who voluntarily descend the class ranks to experience "vital contact" by living or associating, temporarily, with the poor. The motivations of these characters--and historical figures such as John Reed and Walter Wyckoff--range from straightforward bohemian slumming among the "exotics" to more complex and psychologically... Read more
Acknowledgments Chapter One: Vital Contact Chapter Two: Resident Gentry in Melville, Hawthorne, Jewett, James and Howells Chapter Three: Ernest Poole, Max Eastman and the Legend of John Reed Chapter Four: Upton Sinclair's Coal War and Dilemmas of Class Transvestiture Chapter Five: Spiritual Adventures of Social Workers in Eugene O'Neill, Elia Peattie, and Clara Laughlin Chapter Six: The Genteel Radical in the Years Between: Sinclair's Oil! and Boston Chapter Seven: Alternative Initiatives of Dos Passos, Steinbeck and Wright Notes Bibliography Index
Biography
William E. Cain
