Understanding Anne Tyler

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University of South Carolina Press, 1990 - Literary Criticism - 267 pages
This first full-length study of Anne Tyler examines the patterns reappearing throughout her 11 novels. Petry explains that in the past Tyler has been classified as a woman's writer, a Southern writer influenced by Faulkner, and even a Dickensian, all of which labels are disproved. Instead, Petry suggests the strong influence of Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and 19th-century Russian playwrights, especially Chekhov. Although Tyler does not care for the strident feminist work of the early 1970s, she does admit to a preference for the fiction of Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers, Southern authors whose works also transcend categorization. Her humanistic purpose, "remaining functional" in the face of oppressive circumstances, reflects these influences. ISBN 0-87249-716-X: $24.95.

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Contents

Understanding Anne Tyler
1
If Morning Ever Comes and The
22
A SlippingDown Life
53
Copyright

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