Originally presented as author's thesis (doctoral)--Tulane University, 2001. Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-215) and index.
Contents:
"A man only in form" : the roots of naturalism in African American literature. "Subtle brotherhood" in Stephen Crane's tales of adventure : alienation, anxiety, and the rites of manhood -- "Beauty unmans me" : diminished manhood and the leisure class in Norris and Wharton -- "A man only in form" : the roots of naturalism in African American literature.
Summary:
"In A Man's Game, John Dudley argues that in the climate of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when authors such as Stephen Crane, Jack London, Frank Norris, and Edith Wharton were penning their major works, literary endeavors were widely viewed as frivolous and inconsistent with the manly ideals of the 'strenuous life' as advocated by Theodore Roosevelt. Male writers such as Crane and Norris defined themselves and their work in contrast to these effete perception of literature. Women like Wharton, on the other hand, wrote out of a skeptical or hostile reaction to the expectations of them as women writers." "Dudley explores a number of social, historical, and cultural developments that catalyzed the masculine impulse underlying literary naturalism: the rise of spectator sports and masculine athleticism; the professional role of the journalist, adopted by many writers, allowing them to camoflauge their primary role as artist; and post-Darwinian interest in the sexual component of natural selection. A Man's Game also explores the surprising adoption of a masculine literary naturalism by African-American writers at the beginning of the 20th century, a strategy, despite naturalism's emphasis on heredity and genetic determinism, that helped define the black struggle for racial equality."--BOOK JACKET.
Series:
Studies in American literary realism and naturalism
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