The Anti-Hero in the American Novel: From Joseph Heller to Kurt Vonnegut (American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century)

The Anti-Hero in the American Novel rereads major texts of the 1960s such as Catch-22 , One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and Slaughterhouse 5 to offer an innovative re-evaluation of a set of canonical novels that moves beyond entrenched post-modern and post-structural interpretations towards an appraisal which emphasizes the specifically humanist and idealist elements of these works, and in the process reasserts the important social impetus that lies behind them. "The Anti-Hero in the American Novel rereads major texts of the 1960s such a Catch-22, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Slaughterhouse-Five to offer an innovative re-evaluation of a set of canonical novels know for their depictions of dissident individuals opposed to the ideological mores of the establishment. Simmons explores the anti-heroic subversions of the main figures in these novels and compares them with the previous heroic conventions such as the entrepreneurial individual, the cowboy, and the Christ figure. This book moves beyond entrenched post-modern and post-structural interpretations towards an appraisal which emphasizes the specifically humanist and idealist elements of these works, and in the process reasserts the important social impetus that lies behind them."--Jacket The Anti-Hero in the American Novel rereads major texts of the 1960s such as Catch-22, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and Slaughterhouse 5 to offer an innovative re-evaluation of a set of canonical novels that moves beyond entrenched post-modern and post-structural interpretations towards an appraisal which emphasizes the specifically humanist and idealist elements of these works, and in the process reasserts the important social impetus that lies behind them--Résumé de l'éditeur