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Explores the importance and complexity of classical allusiveness in the modern American novel
This book is an invaluable survey of the allusions to ancient Greek and Roman culture in the work of seven major modern American novelists: Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Marilynne Robinson. Making the classical world accessible to all readers, it combines new close readings of three key texts by each author with overviews of the essential prior scholarship in the field. It also builds on archival research in documenting the nature and extent of each author's own familiarity with classical literature and languages.
Tessa Roynon is Senior Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.
List of contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: Greek and Roman presences in the modern American novel
Chapter 1 - Willa Cather (1873-1946)
1.1 Cather and the Classics
1.2 The Critical Field and Scholarly Debate
1.3
My Ántonia (1918)
1.4
The Professor's House (1925)
1.5
Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)
Chapter 2 - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
2.1 Fitzgerald and the Classics
2.2 The Critical Field and Scholarly Debate
2.3
This Side of Paradise (1920)
2.4
The Great Gatsby (1925)
2.5
Tender is the Night (1934)
Chapter 3 - William Faulkner (1897-1962)
3.1 Faulkner and the Classics
3.2 The Critical Field and Scholarly Debate
3.3
Light in August (1932)
3.4
Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
3.5
Go Down, Moses (1942)
Chapter 4 - Ralph Ellison (1913-1994)
4.1 Ellison and the Classics
4.2 The Critical Field and Scholarly Debate
4.3
Invisible Man (1952)
4.4
Thee Days Before the Shooting ... Part I (2010)
4.5
Three Days Before the Shooting ... Part II (2010)
Chapter 5 - Toni Morrison (1931-2019)
5.1 Morrison and the Classics
5.2 The Critical Field and Scholarly Debate
5.3
Song of Solomon (1977)
5.4
Beloved (1987)
5.5
Jazz (1992)
Chapter 6 - Philip Roth (1933-2018)
6.1 Roth and the Classics
6.2 The Critical Field and Scholarly Debate
6.3
American Pastoral (1997)
6.4
I Married a Communist (1998)
6.5
The Human Stain (2000)
Chapter 7 - Marilynne Robinson (1943- )
7.1 Robinson and the Classics
7.2 The Critical Field and Scholarly Debate
7.3
Housekeeping (1980)
7.4
Gilead (2004)
7.5
Home (2008)
Conclusion: the diversity of modern American fiction's classicism
Works Cited
Appendices:
1 - Glossary of the classical terms used in this book
2 - Resources
Index
About the author
Tessa Roynon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, where she teaches American and world literature. Internationally renowned for her work on Toni Morrison, she has published extensively on numerous modern American novelists including E.L. Doctorow, Ralph Ellison, Jeffrey Eugenides and Marilynne Robinson. Her second sole-authored book, Toni Morrison and the Classical Tradition: Transforming American Culture (OUP, 2013), was awarded the Toni Morrison Society Book Prize in 2015.
Summary
This book is an invaluable survey of the allusions to ancient Greek and Roman culture in the work of seven major modern American novelists: Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Marilynne Robinson.
