Analytic Philosophy of Literature

Norman Mailer in Context

Maggie McKinley

Harper College

Description

This volume offers new insight into the breadth of contexts that inform Norman Mailer’s body of work. It examines important literary, critical, theoretical, cultural, and historical frameworks for Mailer’s writing, highlighting the ways his work reflects the concerns of twentieth and twenty-first century America. This book traces Mailer’s literary influences; his contributions to a variety of literary genres; his participation in the American political sphere; the philosophical, religious, and gendered contexts that shape his work; and the iconic American figures he profiled. The book concludes with reflections on Mailer’s literary and cultural legacy, emphasizing his advocacy for literary freedom and the contemporary resonance of his work.

Key Features

• Provides a comprehensive overview of the cultural, political, biographical, critical, and historical contexts of Norman Mailer’s work • Provides readers with a variety of unique perspectives on Mailer’s work, highlighting the diversity of possible emphases and approaches to his work • Provides brief, clear, and concise studies of Mailer in many interdisciplinary contexts

Contents

Introduction; Part I. Literary Influences: 1. Early Influences; 2. Mailer and Hemingway; 3. Friendships and Feuds; Part II. Form and Genre: 4. New Journalism; 5. Essays and Columns; 6. The Novel; 7. Criticism; 8. Film; 9. Modernism; 10. Postmodernism; Part III. Political Contexts: 11. Marxism and Malaquais; 12. JFK and Political Heroism; 13. The Vietnam War; 14. 1968 Political Conventions; 15. Left Conservatism; Part IV. Philosophical and Cultural Contexts: 16. Totalitarianism; 17. The Hipster; 18. Manichaeism and Existentialism; 19. Technology; 20. Violence; 21. Race; 22. Judaism; Part V. Gender and Sexuality: 23. Masculinity; 24. The Second Wave Feminist Movement; 25. Sex and Sexuality; Part VI. Profiles and Literary Biographies: 26. Marilyn Monroe; 27. Muhammad Ali; 28. Picasso; 29. The Criminal Mind: Gary Gilmore and Lee Harvey Oswald; Part VII. Mailer’s Legacy: 30. Literary Activism; 31. Mailer in Translation; 32. Letters; 33. Mailer Studies in the 21st century; 34. Political Resonance; Primary Bibliography; Selected Secondary Bibliography; Index.

Additional Information

Level: Graduate students, academic researchers Series: Literature in Context

August 2021 228 x 152 mm c.400pp 978-1-108-47766-6 Hardback £84.99 / US$110.00