Group items tagged

This article examines America, Americans history and the relationship between it and indigenous tribes and native American peoples like the Lakota, a member of which is John Lame Deer who wrote Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions a novel about American Indian religion and Native American rituals from the point of a genuine Lakota Cowboy. The book looks at religion and beliefs as does this article. It also has pictures, links to academic article on similar topics and to copies of the book, ebooks, and ebook readers for college students like the kindle.

This article examines the American literary tradition, specifically early American writing, to understand the roots of the concept of Manifest Destiny. It examines literature in America as well as literature and nature during colonialism in the Americas and on into the United States as it expanded westward. The article also has links, books, ebooks, and ebook readers as well as other academic resources available.

This article examines one of American Literature's classics, Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson. It was one of America's first best sellers and remains a favorite among American literary hardcover classics. The article contains contemporary and original critical reactions. It also has pictures and links as well as electronic versions of the novel and ebook readers as well as other academic resources available.

When William Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949, his works in the United States had been out of print for almost a decade. While writers like Steinbeck and Hemingway dominated the American literary landscape, Faulkner was, at best, an afterthought. This article examines how someone who was out of print in their own country could win a Noble Prize years and years before his American contemporaries.

Any attempt to say something meaningful about the literature of William Faulkner must acknowledge the overwhelming task of saying anything at all about his literature. This truth makes itself most apparent in an attempt to write about Absalom, Absalom! In this article, which examines Absalom, Absalom!, the character of Thomas Sutpen is examined through the lens Joseph Campbell's Hero Archetype and is revealed to be the specific American version of the hero: the anti-hero.

This is part two in a continuing series of articles all of which are designed to inform and guide anyone who might want to know a little bit more about the rich tradition of art, letters and philosophy we have inherited from those who came before us. This article looks specifically at some of the best and most important works of 20th Century American Postmodernism. It discusses authors such as Joseph Heller, John Barth, Kurt Vonnegut, Don DeLilo, and David Foster Wallace.

When Kurt Vonnegut published his first novel, "Player Piano," in 1952, he wrote about corporate culture taking over in America. It was the end of WWII and Vonnegut, as a young novelist, wrote about a distant future where the corporate powers that were beginning to dominate the American landscape seized the opportunities presented by the fragile post-war economy. Today, 57 years later, Vonnegut's vision is much closer to reality than anyone browsing the "new fiction" section in 1952 would accept. Vonnegut is a visionary. This article examines the lasting value and effect of Vonnegut's ever-true vision and work.

Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most prolific if not best American writers of the second half of the twentieth century, first earned a reputation for himself as a science-fictionist with his early works, The Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle. This reputation, however much it vastly underestimates and misunderstands Vonnegut's work and its significance to the modern era, has been difficult for Vonnegut to escape. It does, however, provide insight into the aspects of the modern situation that Vonnegut sees as central and meaningful. Bluebeard, which trades a more traditionally Vonnegut mad scientist for a retired, eccentric expressionist painter, the same painter from Breakfast of Champions, tackles the issues which have traditionally blurred Vonnegut's role in the literary and popular fiction traditions. This article explores these issues within Vonnegut's version of the fairytale, Bluebeard.

In his "The Philosophy of Composition" Poe tells us that he begins writing with "the consideration of an effect" (1598). Almost all of Poe's poetry and fiction give evidence to support Poe's claim that the intended effect, upon the reader, is indeed central to his creative work. This article explores that intended effect and its centrality in Poe's famous short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher".

This article examines the works of William Faulkner as a whole and asks questions about why he wrote about what he wrote about and how he was able to transform the materials of a small stretch of land in Mississippi into literary ground fertile enough to allow him to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. The articles contain pictures, reading recommendations, and links to other articles by the author on William Faulkner.

At 7 pm on Thursday, July 23, 2009, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures continues its Summer Shorts series at the WYEP Community Broadcast Center on the South Side with "Iran Unveiled," a program featuring two Iranian women authors, Anahita Firouz and Moniro Ravanipour. The program is offered in collaboration with Pittsburgh City of Asylum.

This article discusses William Faulkner's novel, Light in August. It examines specifically the character of Joe Christmas, one of Faulkner's mos enigmatic and tragic characters. The article examines how the real tragedy in the story of Joe Christmas is the racial prejudice of his family and his fellow man. The article presents the discussion within the context of understanding Faulkner's work and it's significance as a whole.