Literature, American

James Welch's historical novel Fools Crow brings readers to the eve of the destruction of Plains Indians' culture. Through Fools Crow, a member of the Pikuni band in the Blackfeet tribe, readers witness the rites of passage of a young man evolving into a respected member of Blackfeet society. The story culminates with the Marias Massacre of 1870 in which the U.S. Cavalry knowingly slaughtered innocent Blackfeet. While many find this book tragic with depressing implications, Welch's development of the hero offers contemporary readers a sense of hope. Welch offers a new hero, one who brings new knowledge to the people, in the character Fools Crow. While most American Indian culture heroes are mythic, Welch offers a man who learns to live with mortal limitations and weaknesses. Because of who he becomes while remaining a man, not a myth, Fools Crow stands as a symbol of hope, not loss, for today.

Contrary to the generally accepted interpretation of Genesis 34 that Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, was raped, What Dinah Thought, by Deena Metzger, and The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant, clearly state that Dinah loved Shechem, the man who was alleged to have raped her, and had consensual sexual relations with him. These twentieth century American novels are written in the rabbinic tradition of interpreting biblical verse, known as midrash. Metzger recreates Dinah as a contemporary Jewish woman, who travels to Israel to find and marry the reincarnated Shechem, a contemporary Arab. In contrast, Diamant imagines Dinah's life in biblical times, tracing her story prior to her birth to her death. This thesis distinguishes Metzger's and Diamant's novels from rabbinic midrash and analyzes whether their interpretation, that Dinah was not raped, is valid.

A recurrent condition plaguing many of James's characters can be diagnosed as an aesthetic dependency. These characters turn their back on "the real thing" and exist in a precarious world of beauty and misplaced ideals. The novels examined present various methods James's characters utilize to elude the actual world. In The Tragic Muse, the line that separates mimetic art and actuality is nonexistent. Through imitation and performance characters create and represent what ought to be. Aesthetic immersion and imaginative constructs are opposed methods of escape in The Spoils of Poynton. The Ambassadors depicts a world where characters conspire to disguise the truth. Lambert Strether's imagination is stimulated by this milieu and takes flight. Similarly, the characters in The Wings of the Dove go to extreme lengths to realize their aesthetic visions. Ultimately, each character in these novels must deal with the sacrifices that are made when one chooses to exist in a world consisting solely of beauty and imagination.

The allusions to Paradise Lost in the poetry of Wallace Stevens--specifically the journey through Chaos--reveal an underlying allegory in which Satan as the symbol of imperfect man is transformed through the powers of poetry and grace to emerge from the darkness of fear and superstition a redeemed figure made vibrant through a more vital understanding of himself, his world, and his place in it. Through the powers of decreation he comes to realize that the imperfect is synonymous not only with the possibilities of change but also with the cycles of life itself; like Job, he finds that the only truth worth having is one affirmed through his own experience and through the realizations of a love far greater than himself.

The Cold-War mother lived in an era of angst, animosity, and anxiety. The immigrant mothers of the Beats not only had to grapple with the demands of her children, but also had to take on the post-Freudian demands of their new society. This anxiety tainted her mind, her milk, and consequently her children's writing. The works of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso exhibit the dramatic effect that their mothers had on their life and cathartic writings. Mothers were the wellspring and crumbling foundation of these writers as well as the muse who inspired them to beatness.

For Henry James, artistic vision is essentially revision. It is a process of transformation: of literal experience to "felt life," of pictorial presentation to dramatic representation, of the past to the present. This process is a central element of James's fiction. The "meaning" of stories such as "The Real Thing" and "The Middle Years" and novels such as The Ambassadors depends on a growth of vision. Their protagonists must be able to overcome the limits of their imaginations. They must be reflective, both intellectually and mimetically. In demanding a finer kind of artistic perception, James pointed the way for a younger generation of writers and critics. James's vision was broad enough to encompass classic critical ideals and artistic goals that would be achieved years after he struggled with them.

Hemingway's interest in bullfighting pervaded his entire literary career. Taurine topics--in fiction and non-fiction--in his early writings such as In Our Time and articles for the Toronto Star Weekly parallel his developing style. The peak of his knowledge of tauromachy is reached in "The Undefeated," The Sun Also Rises, and Death in the Afternoon. The decline of his writing style is exemplified in "The Dangerous Summer" when his physical and mental health also declined. These taurine-related works contain themes that reflect some of Hemingway's personal anxieties about not being readily published and about rivalries with other writers.

The individual's search for absolute order and meaning within a chaotic universe is an important theme in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. In Sirens of Titan, Malachi Constant unwillingly undertakes this futile quest and is consequently victimized, philosophically and psychologically, by various agents and symbols of chaos. After spiraling outward into the chaotic cosmos, his simplistic beliefs revealed to be illusion, Malachi spirals back to himself and to Earth, literally and figuratively, only to confront the illusions within. In addition, the form of Sirens of Titan can be seen as a metaphor for meaninglessness, mirroring and echoing Malachi Constant's and the reader's absurd call for clarity within chaos.

The Accidental Tourist, a 1985 novel by Anne Tyler, is the story of Macon Leary, a man whose life and marriage have been shattered by the tragic death of his son. Despite these dismal circumstances, Tyler's book is quirky, offbeat and ultimately comic, due primarily to the unfailing tolerance and humor of the author herself. Lawrence Kasdan's 1988 film adaptation of Tyler's novel is thematically consistent with the book. Kasdan unerringly recognized the scenes naturally suited to dramatization, and in places he successfully transfers Tyler's dialogue directly to the screen with effective comic results. Throughout most of the film, however, the tone is melancholy and the overall effect is much heavier than the novel. Superb acting by William Hurt and Geena Davis help to give Kasdan's film depth and power.

Over the years the study of literature has shifted its attention from the author to the text to the reader and back again--all this in an attempt to understand what a text means and how that meaning got into the text in the first place. Wayne C. Booth's rhetorical model of interpretation, while excellent in its detailing rhetorical techniques and their effects on the reader, ignores both the active role readers play in interpretation and the creative power of language. This thesis takes a post-transactional approach to The Turn of the Screw and Lolita in an attempt to expose two blind spots in Booth's rhetorical criticism: his refusal to allow the reader into the creative, interpretive process, and his insistence on the author's use of clear, unambiguous language to produce a single reading of his text.