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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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library PS271 .H29 2002Off-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
  • American literature > West (U.S.) > History and criticism
  • Novelists, American > Homes and haunts > West (U.S.)
  • Domestic fiction, American > History and criticism
  • National characteristics, American, in literature
  • Western stories > History and criticism
  • Frontier and pioneer life in literature
  • Family violence in literature
  • Women pioneers in literature
  • Marriage in literature
  • Violence in literature
  • Authors, American > Homes and haunts > West (U.S.)
  • American fiction > History and criticism
  • Pioneers in literature
  • Pioneers in literature
  • Authors, American > Homes and haunts
  • American fiction
  • American literature
  • Domestic fiction, American
  • Family violence in literature
  • Frontier and pioneer life in literature
  • Intellectual life
  • Literature
  • Marriage in literature
  • National characteristics, American, in literature
  • Novelists, American > Homes and haunts
  • Violence in literature
  • Western stories
  • Women pioneers in literature
  • Authors, American > Homes and haunts > West (U.S.)
  • West (U.S.) > Intellectual life
  • West (U.S.) > In literature
  • West United States
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