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'Frank Norris and American Naturalism' brings together in one volume Donald Pizer's essays on the writings of Frank Norris. The essays as a whole seek to demonstrate both the coherence of Norris's thought and his contribution toward the establishment of a distinctive form of naturalism in America.
List of contents
Preface; Editorial Note and Acknowledgments; Criticism; Introduction: The Literary Criticism of Frank Norris; Frank Norris's Definition of Naturalism; Frank Norris and the Frontier as Popular Idea in America; Vandover and the Brute and McTeague Evolutionary Ethical Dualism in Frank Norris's; Vandover and the Brute and McTeague; McTeague and American Naturalism; The Problem of Philosophy in the Novel; The Biological Determinism of McTeague in Our Time; Frank Norris's McTeague : Naturalism as Popular Myth; The Popular Novels; The Masculine- Feminine Ethic in Frank Norris's Popular Novels; The Octopus; Another Look at The Octopus; The Concept of Nature in Frank Norris's The Octopus; Synthetic Criticism and Frank Norris: Or, Mr. Marx, Mr. Taylor and Th e Octopus; Collis P. Huntington, William S. Rainsford and the Conclusion of Frank Norris's The Octopus; Index.
About the author
Donald Pizer has had a distinguished career as a critic and editor of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literature and as an interpreter of the history and nature of American literary naturalism. Among his most well-known works are Realism and Naturalism in Late Nineteenth Century American Literature and The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism. Pizer's books about Frank Norris include a critical study The Novels of Frank Norris and editions of The Literary Criticism of Frank Norris and McTeague; he has also edited the Library of America volume, Frank Norris: Novels and Essays.