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Record Nr.

UNINA9910788323403321

Autore

Wells Ira <1981->

Titolo

Fighting words [[electronic resource] ] : polemics and social change in literary naturalism / / Ira Wells

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Tuscaloosa, : University of Alabama Press, 2013

ISBN

0-8173-8677-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (206 p.)

Collana

Studies in American literary realism and naturalism

Disciplina

810.9/12

Soggetti

American fiction - 20th century - History and criticism

Naturalism in literature

Social problems in literature

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

Naturalism: a polemical introduction -- An education -- The polemical nature of naturalism in America -- Against the grain: ecology, environmentalism, and Frank Norris's The octopus -- Crimes of art and nature: an American tragedy and the problem of abortion -- "What I killed for, I am": domestic terror in Richard Wright's America -- Epilogue.

Sommario/riassunto

Fighting Words offers an entirely new understanding of what literary naturalism is and why it matters. Ira Wells, countering the standard narrative of literary naturalism's much-touted concern with environmental and philosophical determinism, draws attention to the polemical essence of the genre and demonstrates how literary naturalists engaged instead with explosive political and cultural issues that remain fervently debated today. Naturalist writers, Wells argues in Fighting Words, are united less by a coherent philosophy than by an attitude, a postur