The Critical Response to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

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Barbara A. Heavilin, ed.

ISBN: 0-313-29990-0

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-29990-2

DOI:

384 pages

Greenwood Press

Publication: 6/30/2000

List Price: $110.95 (UK Sterling Price: £76.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Literature » American Literature

Series Title: Critical Responses in Arts and Letters

Description: When it was initially published in 1939, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath instantly became a bestseller. Like many phenomenally popular works, it has elicited a wide range of critical responses. Some earlier reviewers faulted Steinbeck for his apparent sentimentality, while others were disturbed by his portrait of heartless, greedy Americans. Others, too, criticized his aesthetics. His novel became an important part of the American curriculum, many readers praised his epic vision, and modern critics have tended to respond favorably to his works. But despite the publication of four new editions of the book from 1989 to 1997, its place in the American literary canon is precarious.

Through reprints of early reviews and scholarly articles, along with original essays and reviews of the four most recent major editions, this volume traces the critical reception of Steinbeck's novel. The first part of the book looks back at the first 50 years of the novel's reception, from 1939 to 1989, while the second examines the response to Steinbeck during the 1990s. Some of these later essays reflect on the lasting significance of the novel, while others note that some scholars and educators have questioned its relevance. The volume includes a chronology and bibliography, and an extensive introductory essay overviews the major trends in Steinbeck scholarship.

Table of Contents:

Series Forward by Cameron Northouse
Preface
Introduction
1939-1989 Looking Back on the First Fifty Years
Review: The Grapes of Wrath: The Tragedy of the American Sharecropper by Charles Lee
Review: The Grapes of Wrath Tops Year's Tales in Heart and Art by Charles Lee
Review: Farm Tenancy Central Theme of Steinbeck by Fritz Raley Simmons
John Steinbeck: Naturalism's Priest by Woodburn R. Ross
Proletarian Leanings by George F. Whicher
"The Grapes of Wrath" by Joseph Fontenrose
Steinbeck and Hemingway: Suggestions for a Comparative Study by Peter Lisca
Water Imagery and the Conclusion to The Grapes of Wrath by Collin G. Matton
John Steinbeck's Spatial Imagination in The Grapes of Wrath by George Henderson
Dialogic Structure and Levels of Discourse in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by Louis Owens and Hector Torres
The Squatters' Circle in The Grapes of Wrath by John H. Timmerman
1990-1999 Looking Forward to a New Millennium
Steinbeck's Debt to Dos Passos by Barry G. Maine
The World of Steinbeck's Joads by Robert Murray Davis
Poor Whites: Joads and Snopses by Abby H.P. Werlock
California Answers The Grapes of Wrath by Susan Shillinglaw
Audience and Closure in The Grapes of Wrath by Nicholas Visser
The Darwinian The Grapes of Wrath by Brian E. Railsback
The American Cain and Steinbeck's Shifting Perspective by Barbara A. Heavilin
A Postmodern Steinbeck, or Rose of Sharon Meets Oedipa Mass by Chris Kocela
Steinbeck and His Critics: A Study in Artistic Self-Concept by Michael Meyer
The Grapes of Wrath and the Literary Canon of American Universities in the Nineties by Mary Brown
The Enduring Values of Steinbeck's Fiction: The University Student and The Grapes of Wrath by Kenneth Swan
Review: Honoring an American Classic: Viking's 1989 Edition of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by Linda Pelzer
Review: The 1993 Everyman's Library Edition of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by Barbara A. Heavilin
Review: The 1996 Library of America Edition of John Steinbeck: "The Grapes of Wrath" and Other Writings by Barbara A. Heavilin
Review: Viking's 1997 Edition of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath": Text and Criticism by Beverly K. Simpson
Fermenting The Grapes of Wrath: From Violent Anger Distilling Sweet Concord by Michael Meyer
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the Author: BARBARA A. HEAVILIN is Associate Professor of English at Taylor University.

LCC Class: 813


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