American Superrealism: Nathanael West and the Politics of Representation in the 1930s

Portada
Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1997 M11 1 - 200 páginas

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 stretches 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. American Superrealism offers what is surely the definitive study of West, as well as a provocative analysis that reveals the issue of representation as the central concern of Depression-era America.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

A Cool Million
88
The Day of the Locust
113
Madonnas Bustier or The Burning of Los Angeles
132
Notes
139
Derechos de autor

Otras ediciones - Ver todas

Términos y frases comunes

Acerca del autor (1997)

Jonathan Veitch was professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is now chairman of humanities at the New School for Social Research in New York. This is his first book.

Información bibliográfica