Research Catalog

Marriage, violence, and the nation in the American literary West

Title: Marriage, violence, and the nation in the American literary West / William R. Handley.
Author: Handley, William R.
Publication: Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Book/Text	Use in library	PS271 .H29 2002	Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 261 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"In Marriage, Violence, and the Nation in the American Literary West, William R. Handley examines literary interpretations of the western American past. Handley argues that although recent scholarship provides a narrative of western history that counters the optimistic story of frontier individualism by focusing on the victims of conquest, twentieth-century American fiction tells a different story of intra-ethnic violence, surrounding marriages and families. He examines works of historiography, as well as writing by Zane Grey, Willa Cather, Wallace Stegner, and Joan Didion among others, to argue that these works highlight white Americans' anxiety about what happens to American "character" when domestic enemies such as Indians and Mormon polygamists, against whom the nation had defined itself in the nineteenth century, no longer threaten its homes. Handley explains that once its enemies are gone, imperialism brings violence home in retrospective narratives that allegorize national pasts and futures through intimate relationships."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; [132]

Uniform Title

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 132.

Subject

Genre/Form

Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 234-255) and index.

Contents

Western unions -- Turner's rhetorical frontier -- Marrying for race and nation: Wister's omniscience and omissions -- Polygamy and empire: Grey's distinctions -- Unwedded west: Cather's divides -- Accident and destiny: Fitzgerald's fantastic geography -- Promises and betrayals: Joan Didion and Wallace Stegner.

ISBN

052181667X
9780521816670
9786610161409
6610161402

LCCN

2002016593

OCLC

ocm48892767
48892767
SCSB-1265895

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library