Kirk Curnutt

a novel

Raising Aphrodite

William Faulkner examines the life and work of the American modernist whose experiments in style and form radically challenged not only the experience of time in narrative, but also conceptions of the American South, race, and the explosive fear of miscegenation. Beginning with the 1929 publication of The Sound and the Fury (his fourth novel), Faulkner produced a dazzling series of masterpieces in rapid order, including As I Lay Dying; Sanctuary; Light in August; Absalom, Absalom!; and Go Down, Moses—novels and stories that alternately exhilarated and exasperated critics and left readers gasping to keep pace with his storytelling innovations. Transforming his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, into the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Faulkner created his own microcosm in which compassion and personal honor struggle to stand up to the violence, lust, and greed of the modern world. As prolific as Faulkner was, however, the career of this Nobel laureate was neither easy nor carefree. He was perpetually strapped for cash, burdened with supporting a large extended family, ambivalent toward his marriage, and vulnerable to alcoholism. Honoring both the man and the artist, this book examines how Faulkner strained to balance these pressures and pursue his literary vision with single-minded determination.

William Faulkner

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sevecendir gece

'Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story.' F. Scott Fitzgerald's first story collection, Flappers and Philosophers, appeared in 1920 on the heels of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise, and immediately established him as a master of popular fiction. Love stories such as 'The Offshore Pirate' and 'Head and Shoulders' capture the spectacle and fantasy of the Jazz Age, celebrating that modern icon of feminine self-possession, the flapper, while comedies of manner like 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair' and 'The Ice Palace' showcase Fitzgerald's eye for humour. In addition to these four classic tales, which first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post , this edition highlights the author's proficiency with other crowd-pleasing story types: from Gothic fiction ('The Cut-Glass Bowl') to didactic moral stories ('The Four Fists'), from satire ('Dalyrimple Goes Wrong') to spiritual quests ('Benediction'), Fitzgerald tried his hand at many genres—-and succeeded at all.

Flappers and Philosophers

Explores how American Literature has represented the sound and spirit of popular music From the birth of rhythm and blues to the rise of hip-hop, American writers have long grappled with how to capture in words the energy, rebellion, and cultural power of popular music. Popular Music and American Literary Culture traces this complex relationship, offering the most comprehensive exploration yet of how novelists, poets, and playwrights have responded to the sounds that have defined the last eight decades of American life. Kirk Curnutt examines how writers have celebrated, critiqued, and been inspired by the sonic revolutions of their time—from Elvis and Motown to punk and rap—while questioning literature’s ability to match music’s visceral immediacy. Moving from 1950s pulp paperbacks to twenty-first-century drama, Curnutt uncovers how depictions of performers, fans, and media reflect broader debates about art, authenticity, and cultural authority. His wide-ranging readings recover overlooked works and authors who confronted rock and soul with as much seriousness as the revered voices of American fiction, poetry, and theater. Illuminating how writers have tried, and often struggled, to translate rhythm, emotion, and the pulse of a generation into prose and verse, Popular Music and American Literary Culture: Addresses scholarship on rock, soul, funk, and hip-hop within a single, cohesive framework Reveals how literary portrayals of music reflect shifting cultural attitudes toward race, class, gender, and generational identity Examines canonical authors including Thomas Pynchon and James Baldwin, as well as overlooked writers such as Kristin Hunter and Greg Randolph Reclaims forgotten or neglected texts that expand the boundaries of American musical and literary study Integrates historical, cultural, and formal perspectives to show the evolution of music in American artistic consciousness Popular Music and American Literary Culture: Reading the Beat is ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses in American literature, popular culture, and music history. It is especially relevant for English, American Studies, and Cultural Studies programs seeking to blend literary analysis with media and performance studies. Written in an engaging and accessible style, it is also well-suited for general readers interested in the interplay between sound and story in American artistic life.

Popular Music and American Literary Culture

Gail D. Sinclair

"No other work has focused so sharply and revealed so clearly the vitality of Hemingway's time in Key West. Key West Hemingway shows that even as his Papa persona grew during the 1930s, Hemingway continued to generate a significant body of nuanced and complex (if also misunderstood) experimental prose. With keen scrutiny and brilliance, these fresh and readable essays rediscover and give us Hemingway's multifaceted American literary voices."--Linda Patterson Miller, editor of Letters from the Lost Generation "This impressive and cohesive collection of essays on Hemingway's Key West works and days puts into proper critical and biographical perspective one of the least understood yet most productive periods in his life. Husband, lover, father, son, fisherman, political activist, defender of the vets, essayist, and crafter of fiction--it's all here, close-up and wide-angle, the American Hemingway of 1928-1940, in all his facets, the rough diamond in the Florida sun."--Allen Josephs, author of Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida Conventional wisdom holds that Hemingway's Key West years were among his least productive, and many are dismissive of the works he produced during that time. In this collection, several leading Hemingway scholars focus on his overlooked short stories and essays, especially those written for Esquire from 1933 to 1936. They demonstrate how the island inspired some of his most vivid work and discuss how the "Hemingway industry" continues to endure. Kirk Curnutt is professor and chair of English at Troy University. Gail D. Sinclair is scholar in residence and executive director of the Winter Park Institute at Rollins College. Contributors: Patrick Hemingway | Carol Hemingway | Lawrence R. Broer | Gail D. Sinclair | Milton A. Cohen | Dan Monroe | Susan F. Beegel | Steve Paul | Mark P. Ott | Susan J. Wolfe | Mimi Reisel Gladstein | Michael J. Crowley | John J. Fenstermaker | E. Stone Shiftlet | Kirk Curnutt | James H. Meredith | Nicole Camastra | Russ Pottle

A Reassessment

Key West Hemingway

The Historical Guides to American Authors is an interdisciplinary, historically sensitive series that combines close attention to the United States' most widely read and studied authors with a strong sense of time, place, and history. Placing each writer in the context of the vibrant relationship between literature and society, volumes in this series contain historical essays written on subjects of contemporary social, political, and cultural relevance. Each volume also includes a capsule biography and illustrated chronology detailing important cultural events as they coincided with the author's life and works, while photographs and illustrations dating from the period capture the flavor of the author's time and social milieu. Equally accessible to students of literature and of life, the volumes offer a complete and rounded picture of each author in his or her America. Book jacket.

A Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald

American Literature in Transition, 1970–1980 examines the literary developments of the twentieth-century's gaudiest decade. For a quarter century, filmmakers, musicians, and historians have returned to the era to explore the legacy of Watergate, stagflation, and Saturday Night Fever, uncovering the unique confluence of political and economic phenomena that make the period such a baffling time. Literary historians have never shown much interest in the era, however - a remarkable omission considering writers as diverse as Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Marilyn French, Adrienne Rich, Gay Talese, Norman Mailer, Alice Walker, and Octavia E. Butler were active. Over the course of twenty-one essays, contributors explore a range of controversial themes these writers tackled, from 1960s' nostalgia to feminism and the redefinition of masculinity to sexual liberation and rock 'n' roll. Other essays address New Journalism, the rise of blockbuster culture, memoir and self-help, and crime fiction - all demonstrating that the Me Decade was nothing short of mesmerizing.

American Literature in Transition, 1970–1980

The subject of endless biographies, fictional depictions, and critical debate, Ernest Hemingway continues to command attention in popular culture and in literary studies. He remains both a definitive stylist of twentieth-century literature and a case study in what happens to an artist consumed by the spectacle of celebrity. The New Hemingway Studies examines how two decades of new-millennium scholarship confirm his continued relevance to an era that, on the surface, appears so distinct from his—one defined by digital realms, ecological anxiety, and globalization. It explores the various sources (print, archival, digital, and other) through which critics access Hemingway. Highlighting the latest critical trends, the contributors to this volume demonstrate how Hemingway's remarkably durable stories, novels, and essays have served as a lens for understanding preeminent concerns in our own time, including paranoia, trauma, iconicity, and racial, sexual, and national identities.

The New Hemingway Studies

Presents a fictionalized interview with Ernest Hemingway, where the influential American writer discusses such topics as feuds, rivalries, wives, and the price of fame.

Coffee with Hemingway

Strangers' lives intersect on an Easter-eve interstate . . . A reluctant sniper receives an unexpected education in music . . . A husband withers under the weight of his wife's infidelity . . . The paterfamilias of a rural Brazilian city is shocked by the lengths he's willing to go to fight a tuberculosis outbreak . . . A former teen-pop princes watches in dismay as a documentary is culled from her life . . . . Baby, Let's Make a Baby is a collection of eleven stories that mine a range of mood and emotion, from comic absurdity to somber reflection. Whether set in the American South or in South America, in the war-ravaged cityscapes of Eastern Europe or along the eroding shores of the Great Lakes, these short fictions explore the dilemmas of complex and conflicted people trying to live with the things that they can't quite overcome.

Plus Ten More Stories

Baby, Let's Make a Baby

James Plath

Gail Sinclair

This book identifies 100 of the most intriguing characters from some of the most well-known novels published over several centuries, from Hester Prynne and Harry Potter to Jay Gatsby and T.S. Garp. The book profiles these memorable characters and details their significance both at the time they were created and today.

The 100 Greatest Literary Characters

The historical context of Fitzgerald's writing is explored in these essays, which among other topics discuss the literary marketplace of the 1920s & 1930s, the influence of public figures such as Walter Lippmann, the mass market, motion pictures, & the aftermath of the Great War.

"A line-by-line examination of an important but neglected Hemingway novel."--

Glossary and Commentary

Reading Hemingway's to Have and Have Not

Ernest Hemingway was a twentieth century American author and journalist known for his sparse and direct writing style. Hemingway penned many novels and stories including The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea, which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

An Interview with Ernest Hemingway

Although F. Scott Fitzgerald remains one of the most recognizable literary figures of the twentieth century, his legendary life - including his tempestuous romance with his wife and muse Zelda - continues to overshadow his art. However glamorous his image as the poet laureate of the 1920s, he was first and foremost a great writer with a gift for fluid, elegant prose. This introduction reminds readers why Fitzgerald deserves his preeminent place in literary history. It discusses not only his best-known works, The Great Gatsby (1925) and Tender Is the Night (1934), but the full scope of his output, including his other novels and his short stories. This book introduces new readers and students of Fitzgerald to his trademark themes, his memorable characters, his significant plots, the literary modes and genres from which he borrowed, and his inimitable style.

Kirk Curnutt

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