A Companion to the Modern American Novel, 1900 - 1950

This cutting-edge Companion is a comprehensive resource for the study of the modern American novel. Published at a time when literary modernism is being thoroughly reassessed, it reflects current investigations into the origins and character of the movement as a whole. Brings together 28 original essays from leading scholars Allows readers to orient individual works and authors in their principal cultural and social contexts Contributes to efforts to recover minority voices, such as those of African American novelists, and popular subgenres, such as detective fiction Directs students to major relevant scholarship for further inquiry Suggests the many ways that modern , American and fiction carry new meanings in the twenty-first century

This cutting-edge Companion is a comprehensive resource for thestudy of the modern American novel. Published at a time whenliterary modernism is being thoroughly reassessed, it reflectscurrent investigations into the origins and character of themovement as a whole.* Brings together 28 original essays from leadingscholars* Allows readers to orient individual works and authors in theirprincipal cultural and social contexts* Contributes to efforts to recover minority voices, such asthose of African American novelists, and popular subgenres, such asdetective fiction* Directs students to major relevant scholarship for furtherinquiry* Suggests the many ways that "modern""American" and "fiction" carry new meaningsin the twenty-first century

Notes on Contributors viiiList of Figures xiiiPreface xivAcknowledgments xxiii1 An Economic History of the United States 1900-19501Eric Rauchway2 The Changing Status of Women 1900-1950 13Nancy Woloch3 The Status of African Americans 1900-1950 31Matthew Pratt Guterl4 Pragmatism, Power, and the Politics of Aesthetic Experience56Jeanne Follansbee Quinn5 Class and Sex in American Fiction: From Casual Laborers toAccidental Desires 73Michael Trask6 Jazz: From the Gutter to the Mainstream 91Jeremy Yudkin7 French Visual Humanisms and the American Style 116Justus Nieland8 Early Literary Modernism 141Andrew Lawson9 Naturalism: Turn-of-the-Century Modernism 160Donna Campbell10 Money and Things: Capitalist Realism, Anxiety, and SocialCritique in Works by Hemingway, Wharton, and Fitzgerald 181Richard Godden11 Chronic Modernism 202Leigh Anne Duck12 New Regionalisms: Literature and Uneven Development 218Hsuan L. Hsu13 "The Possibilities of Hard-Won Land": Midwestern Modernismand the Novel 240Edward P. Comentale14 Writing the Modern South 266Susan V. Donaldson15 What Was High About Modernism? The American Novel andModernity 282John T. Matthews16 African-American Modernisms 306Michelle Stephens17 Ethnic Modernism 324Rita Keresztesi18 The Proletarian Novel 353Barbara Foley19 Revolutionary Sentiments: Modern American Domestic Fictionand the Rise of the Welfare State 367Susan Edmunds20 Lesbian Fiction 1900-1950 392Heather Love21 The Gay Novel in the United States 1900-1950 414Christopher Looby22 The Popular Western 437William R. Handley23 Twentieth-Century American Crime and Detective Fiction454Charles J. Rzepka24 What Price Hollywood? Modern American Writers and the Movies466Mark Eaton25 The Belated Tradition of Asian-American Modernism 496Delia Konzett26 Modernism and Protopostmodernism 518Patrick O'Donnell27 The Modern Novel in a New World Context 535George B. Handley28 Reheated Figures: Five Ways of Looking at Leftovers 554Jani ScanduraIndex 579