1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910458348503321

Autore

Cohen Samuel S

Titolo

After the end of history [[electronic resource] ] : American fiction in the 1990s / / Samuel Cohen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Iowa City, : University of Iowa Press, 2009

ISBN

1-58729-890-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (249 p.)

Disciplina

813.5409

813/.5409

Soggetti

American fiction - 20th century - History and criticism

Literature and history - United States - History - 20th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

CONTENTS; Acknowledgments; Introduction: The End of History; 1. After Enlightenment: Mason & Dixon and the Ampersand; 2. After the Fall: Roth and the 1960's; 3. After Identity: Morrison and Genealogy; 4. How to Tell a True Cold War Story: O'Brien, Didion, and Closure; 5. History Is What Heals: 9/11 and Narrative in Eugenides and Lethem; Afterword: DeLillo and the Anticipation of Retrospection; Notes; Works Cited; Index

Sommario/riassunto

In this bold book, Samuel Cohen asserts the literary and historical importance of the period between the fall of the Berlin wall and that of the Twin Towers in New York. With refreshing clarity, he examines six 1990's novels and two post-9/11 novels that explore the impact of the end of the Cold War: Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, Roth's American Pastoral, Morrison's Paradise, O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods, Didion's The Last Thing He Wanted, Eugenides's Middlesex, Lethem's Fortress of Solitude, and DeLillo's Underworld. Cohen emphasizes how these works reconnect the past to a present that is iro