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The Critical Response to Truman Capote
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Joseph J. Waldmeir, John C. Waldmeir
Book Code: GR0666
ISBN: 0-313-30666-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-30666-2
280 pages, chronology
Greenwood Press
Publication: 2/28/1999
List Price: $103.95 (UK Sterling Price: £59.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Series Title: Critical Responses in Arts and Letters
Series Number: 32
Reviews:
  • Waldmeir and Waldmeir's well-orgainzed collection of critical pieces maintains a degree of fairness vis-a-vis the anomalous Capote....The essays include numerous cogent observations.
    —Choice
Description: One of the most controversial American authors of the twentieth century, Truman Capote is best known as the author of In Cold Blood (1966), a work of literary journalism that recounts the slaughter of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. But he also wrote numerous short stories, dozens of nonfiction pieces for popular magazines, several other novels, and some works for Hollywood and Broadway. Unlike In Cold Blood, many of his earlier works were criticized for their focus on character at a time when other writers were using fiction to explore historical events and social and political positions. Since his death in 1984, scholarly interest in Capote and his works has grown considerably. Over the last few decades, the reaction to his works has been rich and varied. This volume chronicles the critical reception to Capote's writings. Included are previously published reviews and essays, along with several pieces written especially for this book. The selections are grouped in several broad sections, which examine such topics as overviews and interviews, the genres in which he wrote, and his particular works, his literary documentaries, and his relation to other writers and critics. Each section is organized chronologically and traces not only the development of Capote's talents but also the evolution of critical attitudes toward his works. Both favorable and unfavorable analyses by commentators and scholars such as Ihab Hassan, George Jean Nathan, Leslie Fiedler, Diana Trilling, Kenneth Tynan, and many others provide a balanced view of Capote's writings. A comprehensive introduction covers the materials included in the book along with many other relevant texts, and extensive bibliographic material records the present state of Capote scholarship.
Table of Contents:
  • Series Foreword by Cameron Northouse
  • Chronology
  • Introduction
  • Overviews and Interviews
  • Plate du Jour: Soul Food: Truman Capote on Black Culture by Cecil M. Brown
  • The Metaphorical World of Truman Capote by John W. Aldridge
  • The Daydream and Nightmare of Narcissus by Ihab H. Hassan
  • Capote As Gay American Author by Peter G. Christensen
  • Genres and Individual Works
  • Stage and Fiction
  • On Capote's Grass Harp by Eric Bentley
  • The Grass Menagerie by George Jean Nathan
  • The Stage: House of Flowers by Richard Hayes
  • Short Stories
  • Capote's Tales by Leslie Fiedler
  • Truman Capote: The Revelation of the Broken Image by Paul Levine
  • From Gothic to Camp by Irving Malin
  • Novels
  • Other Voices, Other Rooms: Oedipus Between the Covers by Marvin E. Mengeling
  • A Blizzard of Butterflies by H. P. Lazarus
  • Birth of a Heroine by Ihab H. Hassan
  • A Final Door by Terrence Rafferty
  • Fact into Fiction
  • Capote's Crime and Punishment by Diana Trilling
  • The Kansas Farm Murders by Kenneth Tynan
  • The "Non-Fiction" Novel by William Wiegand
  • Real Toads in Real Gardens: Reflections on the Art of Non-Fiction Fiction and the Legacy of Truman Capote by David Galloway
  • Religion and Style in THE DOGS BARK and MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS by John C. Waldmeir
  • "Fire, Fire, Fire Flowing Like a River, River, River": History and Postmodernism in Truman Capote's HANDCARVED COFFINS by Jack Hicks
  • Capote and Others
  • Gothic As Vortex: The Form of Horror in Capote, Faulkner, and Styron by J. Douglas Perry
  • Glimpses of "A Good Man" in Capote's IN COLD BLOOD by Jon Tuttle
  • Variations on a Dream: Katherine Anne Porter and Truman Capote by William L. Nance
  • AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY and IN COLD BLOOD: Turning Case History into Art by John J. McAleer
  • Bibliography
  • Major Works and Themes by Peter G. Christensen
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Index
LC Card Number: 98-48934
LCC Class: PS3505
Dewey Class: 813
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