Tom Wolfe: A Critical Companion

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, Apr 30, 2002 - Literary Criticism - 216 pages

Always controversial, Tom Wolfe's writings inarguably have had enduring cultural impact through the decades, starting with his short stories in the 1960s and the publication of his first nonfiction novel, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test(1968). This book offers the fullest treatment of Wolfe's life and literary output available to date, with full analysis of his major works including The Right Stuff (1979), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), and his most recent novel A Man in Full(1999). With insightful historical perspectives to Wolfe's literary and cultural contributions, this book situates all the book-length works both in the context of Wolfe's own life and of the literary forms he either shaped or rebelled against. Wolfe's readers will enjoy the fascinating account of his personal and professional life. A full chapter is devoted to exploring Wolfe's place in contemporary American literature, which places the writer alongside other notable writers who made their start in journalism, including Twain and Hemingway.

In addition to the discussions of character and plot development for each book, Wolfe's thematic concerns are also fully explored so that readers will be able to understand and appreciate his ideas on society, religion, and gender. Each work is illuminated from an interesting literary perspective, which includes a feminist reading of Radical Chic, a religious reading of A Man in Full, and a reading that places the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in the tradition of the picaresque novel. A select bibliography, including reviews, completes this companion.

From inside the book

 

Contents

Series Foreword by Kathleen Gregory Klein ix
1
Tom Wolfes Place in Contemporary Literature
39
The KandyKolored TangerineFlake Streamline Baby
59
Copyright

7 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Tom Wolfe: A Critical Companion
Brian Ragen
No preview available - 2002

Common terms and phrases

Alan Shepard American culture appear art world astronauts became become Bernstein Black Panthers bohemian Bonfire called Cassady celebrated characters Charlie Croker Conrad created critical drug Electric Kool-Aid Acid Epictetus especially experience fact Farrar Straus Giroux feel fiction Flak Catchers Glenn hero idea important John Glenn journalism journalist Junior Johnson Ken Kesey Kesey Kesey's Kool-Aid Kool-Aid Acid Test Kramer Larry Kramer literary literature live magazine Maria masculinity Mau-Mauing McCoy Merry Pranksters movement movie narrative nonfiction novelists Peepgass Pete Conrad pieces play point of view political Project Mercury Pump House Gang Radical Chic reader realistic religious reporting Right Stuff Roger White role seems sexual Shawn social novel society sort space program status story structure style suggests techniques tell test pilots theme things Tom Wolfe traditional Vanities wife Wolfe describes Wolfe's women writers Yeager York Yorker

References to this book

About the author (2002)

BRIAN ABEL RAGEN is Professor of English at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. He is the author of A Wreck on the Road to Damascus: Innocence, Guilt, and Conversion in Flannery O'Connor (1989). He has contributed numerous articles on American literature to journals and reference works. He is the editor of the journal Papers on Language and Literature.

Bibliographic information

TitleTom Wolfe: A Critical Companion
Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers
AuthorBrian Ragen
Editionillustrated
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 2002
Original fromthe University of Michigan
DigitizedMar 14, 2008
ISBN0313313830, 9780313313837
Length216 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Literary Criticism / American / General
Literary Criticism / General
  
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