American Literature in Transition: 1990-2000

Burn, S. J. (Ed.) (2017) American Literature in Transition: 1990-2000. Series: American literature in transition. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9781107136014

Abstract

Written in the shadow of the approaching millennium, American literature in the 1990s was beset by bleak announcements of the end of books, the end of postmodernism, and even the end of literature. Yet, as conservative critics marked the century's twilight hours by launching elegies for the conventional canon, American writers proved the continuing vitality of their literature by reinvigorating inherited forms, by adopting and adapting emerging technologies to narrative ends, and by finding new voices that had remained outside that canon for too long. By reading 1990s literature in a sequence of shifting contexts - from independent presses to the AIDS crisis; from angelology to virtual reality - American Literature in Transition, 1990–2000 provides the fullest map yet of the changing shape of a rich and diverse decade's literary production. It offers new perspectives on the period's well-known landmarks, Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, but also overdue recognition to writers such as Ana Castillo, Evan Dara, Steve Erickson, and Carole Maso.

• Item Type: Edited Books
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Burn, Professor Stephen
• College/School: College of Arts > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISBN: 9781107136014

Related URLs

• University of Glasgow Library Catalogue