Product Description

Contemporary American Fiction provides an introduction to American fiction since 1970. Offering substantial and detailed interpretations of more than thirty texts by thirty different writers, Millard combines them in an innovative critical structure designed to promote debates on cultural politics and aesthetic value. The book is the first of its kind to offer a wide-ranging survey of recent developments in the fiction of the United States. Recent novels by established writers such as John Updike and Philip Roth are analysed alongside the fiction of younger writers such as Gish Jen and Sherman Alexie. The books innovative structure encourages new ways of thinking about how American writers might be configured in relation to each other, while providing an analysis of how contemporary fiction has responded to changes in central areas of American life such as the family, the media, technology, and consumerism. Contemporary American Fiction is a substantial critical introduction to some of the most exciting fiction of the last thirty years, an eclectic and thorough advertisement for the extraordinary vitality of American fiction at the end of the twentieth century. This is an excellent introduction to the subject for undergraduate students of modern American literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #303079 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

About the Author
Kenneth Millard is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh

Customer Reviews

Invaluable.....
I was very impressed with the author's effortless and accessible style. His evident delight in his subject matter is heartwarmingly refreshing . Never patronizing ...it encouraged me to question and form opinions . Mr. Millard proves to be a most accommodating guide through contemporary American fiction.