Surf Wiki
Save to docs
arts

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Great American Novel

Canonical novel that is thought to embody the essence of America

Canonical novel that is thought to embody the essence of America

Note

the Great American Novel as a concept

The "Great American Novel" (sometimes abbreviated as GAN) is the term for a canonical novel that generally embodies and examines the essence and character of the United States. The term was coined by John William De Forest in an 1868 essay and later shortened to GAN. De Forest noted that the Great American Novel had most likely not been written yet.

Practically, the term refers to a small number of books that have historically been the nexus of discussion, including Moby-Dick (1851), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), The Great Gatsby (1925), and several others. Exactly what novel or novels warrant the title is without consensus and an assortment have been contended as the idea has evolved and continued into the modern age, with fluctuations in popular and critical regard. William Carlos Williams, Clyde Brion Davis and Philip Roth have all written novels about the Great American Novel—titled as such—with Roth's in the 1970s, a time of great interest in the concept.

Equivalents to and interpretations of the Great American Novel have arisen. Writers and academics have commented upon the term's pragmatics, the different types of novels befitting of title and the idea's relation to race and gender.

History

Background and origin of the term

The development of American literature coincided with the nation's development, especially of its identity. Calls for an "autonomous national literature" first appeared during the American Revolution, and, by the mid-19th century, the possibility of American literature exceeding its European counterparts began to take shape, as did that of the Great American Novel, this time being the genesis of novels that would later be considered the Great American Novel.

The term "Great American Novel" originated in an 1868 essay by American Civil War novelist John William De Forest. De Forest saw it serving as a "tableau" of American society, and said that the novel would "paint the American soul" and capture "the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence". Similarly, Daniel Pierce Thompson said it had to be distinctly American. Although De Forest espoused praise and critique for contemporaneous novels, he ultimately concluded that the Great American Novel had yet to be written. The essay's publication coincided with the rising prestige of the novel. Previously, only five percent of American books were marked as novels, with most fictional works given the self-effacing title of a "tale". In 1880, writer Henry James simplified the term with the initialism "GAN".

Development

The term soon became popular, its ubiquity considered a cliché and disparaged by literary critics. Lawrence Buell stated that the concept was seen as a part of a larger national, cultural and political consolidation. According to JSTOR Daily's Grant Shreve, as the concept grew, concrete criteria for the Great American Novel developed:

  • It must encompass the entire nation and not be too consumed with a particular region.
  • It must be democratic in spirit and form.
  • Its author must have been born in the United States or have adopted the country as his or her own.
  • Its true cultural worth must not be recognized upon its publication. Additionally, Shreve states, referencing Buell, that "several 'templates' or 'recipes' for the Great American Novel emerged.... Recipe 1 is to write a novel that is 'subjected to a series of memorable rewritings.'... Recipe 2 is what Buell calls 'the romance of the divide.' Novels of this kind... imagine national (and geographic) rifts in the 'form of a family history and/or heterosexual love affair.'... Recipe 3, a 'narrative centering on the lifeline of a socially paradigmatic figure... whose odyssey tilts on the one side toward picaresque and on the other toward a saga of personal transformation, or failure of such.'"

From the turn of the century to the mid-twentieth century, the idea eluded serious academic consideration, being dismissed as a "naively amateurish age-of-realism pipe dream" not aligned with the culture of that time. Writers such as William Dean Howells and Mark Twain were equally blasé. Frank Norris too saw the concept as not befitting the time, stating that the fact of a great work being American should be incidental. Edith Wharton complained that the Great American Novel concept held a narrow view of the nation, simply being concerned with "Main Street". At this time, it also grew to become associated with masculine values.

Despite this critical disregard, many writers, prepped with "templates" and "recipes" for the matter, sought to create the next Great American Novel; Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis both sought to create the Great American Novel with The Jungle (1906) and Babbit (1924), respectively. William Carlos Williams and Clyde Brion Davis released satirical explorations both entitled The Great American Novel – Philip Roth would later release a novel of the same name*.* Bernard F. Jr. Rogers said that Kurt Vonnegut's "entire career might be characterised as an attempt to produce something like 'the GAN,' but of its own time". The 1970s saw a general resurgence of the concept, with The New York Times using the phrase the most in their history, a total of 71 times. The revival was perhaps the result of social change and related anxieties and the pursuit of a plateau between them.

In the 21st century, retaining its contention and derision, the concept has moved towards a more populist attitude, functioning as "catnip for a listicle-obsessed internet".{{efn|According to Buell, the concept has always been "a more demotic than an academic enthusiasm".}} Adam Kirsch noted that books such as Roth's American Pastoral (1997) indicate that writers are still interested in creating the Great American Novel. Commenting upon the Great American Novel's place in the 21st century, Stephens Shapiro said that "Maybe the GAN is a theme that rises in interest when the existing world system is amidst transformation, as America's greatness of all kinds swiftly fades away." When asked in a 2004 interview if the Great American Novel could be written, Norman Mailer—who had long been interested in the idea—said it could not, for the United States had become too developed of a nation. Tony Tulathimutte similarly dismissed it as "a comforting romantic myth, which wrongly assumes that commonality is more significant than individuality".

Analysis

Racial and gender commentary

Multiple commentators have noted the concept's relation to racial and national identity, be it influence from by large-scale immigration, which brought forth authors closely aligned with the Great American Novel or novels detailing marginalized peoples, some furthermore trying to "bridge the racial divide". Commenting upon the idea's racial aspects and presence in popular consciousness, Hugh Kenner wrote in a 1953 issue of Perspective that:

Perrin, Andrew Hoberek and Barbara Probst Solomon all noted that the '70s saw Jews pursue the GAN. Perrin said it was a boom decade for, what Hoberek called, the "Jewish GAN". Solomon was by 1972 sick of "nice Jewish sons who are writing the GAN". Aaron Latham, in a 1971 article, highlighted Roth and Mailer as Jews who wanted to the write the next GJN and GAN, respectively.

The Great American Novel's relation to masculinity was seen as a problem by female writers. Gertrude Stein once lamented that, as a lesbian Jewish woman, she would be unable to compose the Great American Novel. Joyce Carol Oates similarly felt that "a woman could write it, but then it wouldn't be the GAN". Viet Thanh Nguyen said that "[o]ne of the unspoken silences of the Great American Novel is the assumption that it can only be written by white men". Laura Miller wrote, in a Salon article, that "The presumption and the belligerence embodied in this ideal have put off many American women writers". She also noted that many characters in Great American Novel candidates are male: "the notion that a female figure might serve the same purpose undermines the very concept of the Great American Novel". Although British analyst Faye Hammill noted that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos, was one of the few that 'doesn't stink'. Emily Temple of Literary Hub suggested that if the protagonist of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963) were male it would likely be considered more seriously as a Great American Novel contender.

Interpretations

There are several different interpretations of what makes a Great American Novel. Some say that it depicts a diverse group facing issues representative of "epoch-defining public events or crises." John Scalzi felt that for a novel to be the Great American Novel it had to be ubiquitous and notable, and analyze the United States through a moral context. De Forest similarly saw the Great American Novel as having to capture the "essence" of America, its quality irrelevant. Norris considered the musings upon what made a novel "great" and/or "American" to showcase patriotic insecurity. Mohsin Hamid echoed the idea that the GAN is indicative of insecurity, connecting it to a "colonial legacy".

Commentators have said that the concept is exclusively American in nature. Journalist John Walsh offered a national equal in the form of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace (1869); Buell felt that Australia was the only country to replicate America's search. Scholes said that the Great American Novel has always been thought of adjacent to European literature. David Vann was of the belief that they had to be "anti-American". Rogers felt that it does not need to have American protagonists or be set in the United States and should not espouse patriotism or nationalism.

Buell identifies multiple types of Great American Novels. First is one who is subject to mysticism and stands the test of time. The second is "the romance of the divide", which imagines national rifts in the "form of a family history and/or heterosexual love affair"—race often plays a role. The third variety encapsulates the American Dream and see its protagonist rise from obscurity. Fourthly, novels which are composed of a diverse cast of characters "imagined as social microcosms or vanguards" and who are placed with events and crises that serve to "constitute an image of 'democratic' promise or dysfunction". Buell also said speculative science fiction may be the basis for a possible fifth archetype.

Kasia Boddy wrote that, "[s]ince its initial formulation", the concept "has always been more about inspiration than achievement; the very fact that it has been attempted but remains 'unwritten' providing a spur to future engagement with both nation and national literature". Speculating on De Forest's intentions when devising the notion of the Great American Novel and commenting upon its development, Cheryl Strayed wrote that:

Denoting an apocryphal state, film critic A. O. Scott compared the GAN to the Yeti, the Loch Ness monster and the Sasquatch.

Notable candidates

YearCover or
title pageNovelPortraitAuthorCommentaryRef.***Moby-Dick**Uncle Tom's Cabin****Adventures of Huckleberry Finn**Absalom, Absalom!**Invisible Man**Lolita**To Kill a Mockingbird**Gravity's Rainbow**Blood Meridian**Beloved**American Psycho**Infinite Jest**Underworld**Freedom**Telegraph Avenue**The Goldfinch*
1826[[File:The Last of the Mohicans 1826.jpg100pxborderalt=]][[File:James Fenimore Cooper by Brady.jpg100pxborderalt=A drawn portrait of James Fenimore Cooper, based on a photograph]]Although John William De Forest critiqued Cooper's writing as boring, many consider *The Last of the Mohicans* to be the first GAN. It was influential in defining American literature and addresses themes which are common in later American works, including rugged individualism and freedom.
1850[[File:Title page for The Scarlet Letter.jpg100pxborder]][[File:Nathaniel Hawthorne by Brady, 1860-64.jpg100pxborderalt=A black-and-white photograph of Nathaniel Hawthorne, bearing a mustache and medium-length hair]]Although John William De Forest thought *The Scarlet Letter* unworthy of the label of GAN, it is now widely included on most lists. Lawrence Buell recognized it as a "reluctant master text"—his first GAN script.
1851[[File:Moby-Dick FE title page.jpg100pxborder]][[File:Herman Melville 1860.jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of Herman Melville seated at a chair, arms crossed and sporting combed-back hair and a blocky beard]]According to Hester Blum of Penn State University, "What makes *Moby-Dick* the Greatest American Novel, in other words, is that Melville can invoke the preposterous image of a sobbing, heart-stricken moose and we think, yes, I have come to know exactly what that sounds like, and I know what world of meaning is contained within that terrific sound".
1852[[File:UncleTomsCabinCover.jpg100pxborder]][[File:Beecher-Stowe.jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of a seated Harriet Beecher Stowe, wearing a dress and a shawl]]Buell (2014)]], p. 4. John William De Forest noted it as the only possible contender and as "a picture of American life".
1868[[File:Houghton AC85.Aℓ194L.1869 pt.2aa - Little Women, title.jpg100pxborder]][[File:Louisa May Alcott, c. 1870 - Warren%27s Portraits, Boston.jpg100pxborderalt=A hazy photograph of Louisa May Alcott, with dark hair wearing a dress]]According to Marlowe Daly-Galeano, what makes *Little Women* "such an amazing novel [and possible contender for the GAN] is that it gives women's voices and women's stories the prime position in a way that...[was] very new and fresh to readers in the...late 1860s," and suggests that the "strongest mark of *Little Women*s influence" lies in subsequent stories told about "circles of women" and "cool girl protagonists" which all seem to have a "direct link" to *Little Women*. Gregory Eiselein remarks that several aspects of *Little Women* (its inclusion of colloquialisms and grammatical errors in its dialogue, the familiarity of the March girls' struggles, etc.) make it "one of the founding documents of American literary realism."
1884[[File:Huckleberry Finn book.JPG100pxborder]][[File:Mark Twain by AF Bradley.jpg100pxborderalt=A hazy photograph of Mark Twain, with white hair and mustache in a light-colored suit]]*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* was one of the first American novels to utilize a regional vernacular. In 1935, Ernest Hemingway stated that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn'." William van O'Connor wrote, in a 1955 issue of *College English,* that "we are informed, from a variety of critical positions, that [it] is the truly American novel".
1895[[File:TheRedBadgeOfCourage.jpg100pxborder]][[File:SCrane2.JPG100pxborderalt=A photograph Stephen Crane in a suit, with parted hair and a mustache]]Crane was among the earliest generation of American novelists to be influenced by John William De Forest and consciously strove to produce a "National Novel". Critic Robert Barr had named him the "most likely to produce the great American novel" only two years before Crane died suddenly at the age of 28. According to Yale professor of literature Jay Martin, Crane's war novel *The Red Badge of Courage*, set during the Civil War, "marks the culmination of the Great American Novel".
1925[[File:The Great Gatsby Cover 1925 Retouched.jpg100pxborder]][[File:F. Scott Fitzgerald Publicity Photograph circa 1920.jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of F. Scott Fitzgerald with a slight smile and parted, slicked-back hair]]url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107215432/http://books.google.com/books?id=2IA7o-OTyEsC&pg=PA323&dq=%22Great+American+Novel%22+%22Great+Gatsby%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tLjgT7-zDJHs-ga_88SlDQ&ved=0CDcQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=%22Great%20American%20Novel%22%20%22Great%20Gatsby%22&f=falsedate=January 7, 2014}}*. Columbia University Press. p. 323. "The Great Gatsby (1925), a work still frequently nominated as 'the great American novel' ..." Kirsch, in 2013, said it to be "one of the first titles to come to mind whenever the Great American Novel is mentioned". Deirdre Donahue of *USA Today'' and Fitzgerald scholar James L. W. West III felt that its "embodiment of the American spirit", relevance and prose were the reasons as to why it's the GAN.
1925[[File:Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Cover 1926 Restored.jpg100pxborder]][[File:Anita Loos - Dec 1917 EH.jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of Anita Loos, wearing a fur-lined dress and a large dress hat]]last=Konnikovafirst=Mariadate=June 29, 2012title=The Great American Novelwork=Slateurl=https://slate.com/culture/2012/06/the-great-american-novel-fitzgerald-wharton-morrison-on-the-search.htmlaccess-date=March 24, 2021archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105030238/https://slate.com/culture/2012/06/the-great-american-novel-fitzgerald-wharton-morrison-on-the-search.htmlarchive-date=November 5, 2022url-status=live}}
1936[[File:Absalom, Absalom! (1936 1st ed cover).jpg100pxborder]][[File:Carl Van Vechten - William Faulkner.jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of William Faulkner in a suit and with a mustached, reclined against a brick wall]]*Absalom, Absalom!* has been said to represent Lawrence Buell's "romance of the divide".
1939[[File:The Grapes of Wrath (1939 1st ed cover).jpg100pxborder]][[File:John Steinbeck 1962.jpg100pxborderalt=A photo of John Steinbeck. His hair is slicked-back and closely shaved on the sides. He has a mustache and facial hair on his chin.]]date=December 2024}}
1951[[File:The Catcher in the Rye (1951, first edition cover).jpg100pxborder]][[File:J. D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye portrait).jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of J.D. Salinger, wearing a suit and sporting dark, combed hair]]*The Catcher in the Rye* is an example of a writer setting out to write the GAN and receiving such praise.
1952[[File:Invisible Man (1952 1st ed jacket cover).jpg100px]][[File:Ralph Ellison photo portrait seated.jpg100pxborderalt=Ralph Ellison is pictured sitting in a chair before a bookcase. He is wearing a suit and has a mustache and receding hair-line.]]Joseph Fruscione said that *Invisible Man* was the GAN because it can be "many things to many readers".
1953[[File:The Adventures of Augie March Cover.jpg100px]][[File:Saul Bellow 1953.jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of Saul Bellow with an open book before a bookcase. He is wearing a suit and has somewhat curly hair.]]Martin Amis thought that *The Adventures of Augie March* was the GAN because of its "fantastic inclusiveness, its pluralism, its qualmless promiscuity".
1955[[File:Lolita 1955.JPG100px]][[File:Vladimir Nabokov 1973.jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of Vladimir Nabokov. Wearing a collared shirt, Nabokov is pictured in his later years, with aging skin and white hair.]]Mary Elizabeth Williams called *Lolita* the GAN because of its prose and says "'Lolita' forever remains a thing of timeless beauty."
1960[[File:To Kill a Mockingbird (first edition cover).jpg100pxborder]][[File:Photo portrait of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird dust jacket, 1960).jpg100pxborderalt=A photograph of Harper Lee in an outdoor setting. She has short hair and appears to be examining something in the sand and grass.]]date=July 8, 2010title='Mockingbird' Moments: 'Scout, Atticus And Boo'url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128387104work=NPRaccess-date=January 18, 2021archive-date=January 10, 2020archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200110165715/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128387104url-status=live}}
1973[[File:Gravity's Rainbow (1973 1st ed cover).jpgalt=The silhouette of a row of buildings is situated at the bottom of this bright orange cover. "Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon" is printed in bold text in the center.100pxborderA photograph of Thomas Pynchon from when he served in the US Navy. He is young, wearing a sailor's uniform and smiling with bucked-teeth.]][[File:Thomas Pynchon, Navy Sailor.jpg100pxborder]]Pynchon's postmodern novel of World War II is commonly cited as "the most important American novel" of the post-war era. It has been said to conform to Buell's fourth type of GAN.
1985[[File:Blood Meridian (1985 1st ed half title page).jpg100pxborder]][[File:Cormac McCarthy (Child of God author portrait - high-res).jpgalt=A title page reading "Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West" with the author's name, "Cormac McCarthy", positioned below the title.100pxborderA photograph of Cormac McCarthy. Wearing a patterned collared shirt, he is leaning against a tree with arms crossed. He is mustached]]David Vann felt that *Blood Meridian* was a GAN because it explored the United States’ genocide of Native American people. William Dalrymple states "this book [is] the Great American Novel. It's a beautifully written, dark, bleak western—but unlike any western I'd ever known."
1987[[File:Beloved (1987 1st ed dust jacket cover).jpg100pxborder]][[File:Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye author portrait).jpg100pxborderalt=Toni Morrison is pictured in a turtle-neck. She is sporting an afro.]]The novel is noted for its depiction of the psychological effects of slavery and racism. When *Beloved* topped a poll seeking "the best work of American fiction" published from 1980 to 2005, A. O. Scott remarked that "Any other outcome would have been startling, since Morrison's novel has inserted itself into the American canon more completely than any of its potential rivals." *Beloved* has been noted to align with Buell's third type of GAN.
1991[[File:American Psycho Title.jpg100pxborder]][[File:Ellis.jpg100pxborderalt=Bret Easton Ellis is pictured standing on front of a stone wall and greenery. He is wearing a blazer over a blue collared shirt and has a lanyard on his neck.]]Julia Keller saw the novel's inclusion of "brand names and sex and social anxiety" as part of the reason why it is the GAN.
1996[[File:Infinite Jest 2.jpg100pxborder]][[File:David Foster Wallace (cropped).jpg100pxborderalt=David Foster Wallace is pictured with shoulder-length hair and a short beard. Wearing frameless glasses, he is speaking at a microphone and is wearing a black denim jacket over a t-shirt.]]Buell (2014)]], p. 57.
1997[[File:Underworld 4.jpg100pxborder]][[File:Don delillo nyc 02-cropped.jpg100pxborderalt=An elderly and spectacled Don DeLillo is pictured reading from paper at a microphone. He is wearing a sweater over a collared shirt.]]According to Robert McCrum, it developed a reputation as the GAN almost immediately after its publication.
2010[[File:Freedom (2010 title page, signed by Jonathan Franzen).jpg100pxborder]][[File:Jonathan Franzen 2011 Shankbone 2.JPG100pxborderalt=A spectacled Jonathan Franzen is pictured in a tuxedo on a Time magazine red carpet. His short hair is somewhat untidy.]]Lawrence Buell described it as the "most widely acclaimed GAN contender...post-[9/11](9-11)".
2012[[File:Telegraph Avenue 2.jpg100pxborder]][[File:Michael Chabon by Gage Skidmore.jpg100pxborderalt=Michael Chabon is pictured wearing glasses, shoulder-length hair and a beard. Speaking at a microphone, his collared shirt is decorated with celestial bodies.]]last=Freemanfirst=Johndate=September 1, 2012title='Telegraph Avenue' by Michael Chabonwork=Boston Globeurl=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2012/09/01/telegraph-avenue-michael-chabon/HlCHAYn8CDopZ3S5vhen8O/story.htmlaccess-date=February 4, 2021}}
2013[[File:The Goldfinch cover page signed by Donna Tartt.png100pxborder]][[File:Donna Tartt.jpgborder150x150px]]Described by Randy Boyagoda as "exactly what comes to mind when you think of the Great American Novel: sprawling, smart, of-the-moment in its plot, and above all else, unabashedly swaggering in its presumption that you’ll want to spend eight hundred pages following Theo, its hero, as he makes his way through loud and crazy America."

References

  1. [[Nina Baym. Baym, Nina]], ed. ''The Norton Anthology of American Literature''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. Print.
  2. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], p. 25.
  3. Rodgers, Bernard F. Jr.. (December 1, 1974). "The Great American Novel and "The Great American Joke"". Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction.
  4. Shreve, Grant. (December 17, 2017). "The Great American Game of Picking the Great American Novel". [[JSTOR]].
  5. Shapiro, Stephen. (2015). "Review: The Dream of the Great American Novel". Nineteenth-Century Literature.
  6. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], p. 24.
  7. Brown, Herbert R.. (1935). "The Great American Novel". American Literature.
  8. Zafarris, Jess. (July 4, 2018). "The First Book to Ever Be Dubbed the "Great American Novel" Might Not Be the One You'd Guess". [[Writer's Digest]].
  9. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], pp. 24—25.
  10. Showalter, Elaine. (February 20, 2014). "Can the Great American Novel survive?". [[Prospect (magazine).
  11. Buell, Lawrence. (2014). "The Dream of the Great American Novel". Harvard University Press.
  12. Buell, Lawrence. (2008). "The Unkillable Dream of the Great American Novel: Moby-Dick as Test Case". American Literary History.
  13. Knox, George. (1969). "The Great American Novel: Final Chapter". American Quarterly.
  14. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], pp. 3—4.
  15. Boone, April. (2006). "William Carlos Williams's The Great American Novel: Flamboyance and the Beginning of Art". William Carlos Williams Review.
  16. Perrin, Tom. (February 2018). "American Literature in Transition, 1970–1980". Cambridge University Press.
  17. Scholes, Lucy. (October 21, 2014). "Can a 'Great American Novel' be written in French?".
  18. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], pp. 5,9.
  19. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], p. 387.
  20. Hammond, Margo. (2004-02-05). "Norman Mailer on the Media and the Message".
  21. Tulathimutte, Tony. (December 7, 2016). "Why There's No 'Millennial' Novel (Published 2016)". The New York Times.
  22. González, Rigoberto. (June 30, 2016). "Rigoberto Gonzalez's Great Américas Novel: 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' by Junot Díaz".
  23. Nguyen, Viet Thanh. (June 30, 2016). "Viet Thanh Nguyen's Great American Novels: 'The Woman Warrior' and 'China Men'".
  24. Miller, Laura. (June 6, 2013). "Rachel Kushner's ambitious new novel scares male critics".
  25. Temple, Emily. (January 9, 2017). "A Brief Survey of the Great American Novel(s)".
  26. Hamid, Mohsin. (October 15, 2013). "Where Is the Great American Novel by a Woman?". [[The New York Times]].
  27. Konnikova, Maria. (June 30, 2012). "Why Are Americans Obsessed With the Great American Novel?".
  28. Vann, David. (November 14, 2009). "David Vann on Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian {{!}} Rereading". [[The Guardian]].
  29. Baym, Nina. (2014). "Review of The Dream of the Great American Novel". The New England Quarterly.
  30. Boddy, Kasia. (February 7, 2019). "Making it long: men, women, and the great American novel now". Textual Practice.
  31. (January 13, 2015). "Why Are We Obsessed With the Great American Novel?".
  32. Italie, Hillel. (September 21, 1992). "'Last of the Mohicans' was first great American novel". The Daily Gazette.
  33. Lewis, Randy. (October 3, 1992). "Writer's Wit Found Target in 'Mohicans'". Los Angeles Times.
  34. Konnikova, Maria. (June 29, 2012). "The Great American Novel". Slate.
  35. Messent, Peter. "The Dream of the Great American Novel, by Lawrence Buell".
  36. Latson, Jennifer. (March 16, 2015). "Why The Scarlet Letter Was a Mixed Blessing for Its Author".
  37. Buell, Lawrence. (2008). "The Unkillable Dream of the Great American Novel: Moby-Dick as Test Case". American Literary History.
  38. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], p. 4.
  39. Fuller, Randall. (May 2013). "The First Great American Novel". [[National Endowment for the Humanities]].
  40. (April 27, 2022). "The Great American Novel series: Little Women".
  41. Smith, Henry Nash. (1984). "The Publication of "Huckleberry Finn": A Centennial Retrospect". Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  42. Ulin, David L.. (November 14, 2010). "Celebrating the genius of 'Huckleberry Finn'". Los Angeles Times.
  43. O'Connor, William van. (1955). "Why Huckleberry Finn Is Not the Great American Novel". College English.
  44. Brown, Robert B.. (June–July 1984). "One Hundred Years of Huck Finn". American Heritage Publishing.
  45. Mailer, Norman. (December 9, 1985). "Huckleberry Finn, Alive at 100". [[The New York Times]].
  46. Harrnett, Kevin. (July 10, 2013). "The Greatest American Novel? 9 Experts Share Their Opinions".
  47. [[#Martin. Martin (1967)]], p. 55.
  48. [[#Martin. Martin (1967)]], p. 56, fn. 68.
  49. [[#Martin. Martin (1967)]], p. 35.
  50. link. (January 7, 2014''. Columbia University Press. p. 323. "The Great Gatsby (1925), a work still frequently nominated as 'the great American novel' ...")
  51. Donahue, Deirdre. (May 7, 2013). "Five reasons 'Gatsby' is the great American novel".
  52. Achenbach, Joel. (March 20, 2015). "Why 'The Great Gatsby' is the Great American Novel". [[The Washington Post]].
  53. Williams, John. (January 14, 2021). "The 'Great Gatsby' Glut". [[The New York Times]].
  54. Gutterman, Annabel. (December 24, 2020). "What 'The Great Gatsby' Copyright Expiration Means for Its Legacy".
  55. Konnikova, Maria. (June 29, 2012). "The Great American Novel". Slate.
  56. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41556128?seq=1 One of the few books that doesn't stink': The Intellectuals, the Masses and ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'']" by Faye Hammill. ''Critical Survey''. Vol. 17, No. 3. 2005. Accessed March 24, 2021.
  57. Hirsch, Arthur. (November 16, 1997). "The real great American Novel: 'Absalom, Absalom!' Faulkner: His ninth novel, for its span, its revelation, its American essence, stands above all others in reaching for this literary absolute.". The Baltimore Sun.
  58. Kirsch, Adam. (January–February 2014). "Made in the U.S.A.".
  59. Gioia, Dana. "The Grapes of Wrath Radio Show (interview with Richard Rodriguez) – Transcript". The National Endowment for the Arts.
  60. Nixon, Rob. "The Grapes of Wrath". Turner Classic Movies.
  61. McGrath, Charles. (January 28, 2010). "J. D. Salinger, Literary Recluse, Dies at 91". [[The New York Times]].
  62. Burke, Declan. (July 13, 2011). "Sixty years and 65m copies on: Holden Caulfield and the great American novel". [[The Irish Times]].
  63. Giles, Patrick. (September 15, 2002). "The Great American Novel". Los Angeles Times.
  64. Gambaccini, Paul. (October 7, 2015). "Book of a Lifetime by Paul Gambaccini - Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison". [[The Independent]].
  65. Shteir, Rachel. (May 7, 2019). "A New Adventure for 'Augie March': A Chicago Stage (Published 2019)". [[The New York Times]].
  66. Williams, Mary Elizabeth. (September 30, 1996). "Personal Best: Lolita".
  67. (July 8, 2010). "'Mockingbird' Moments: 'Scout, Atticus And Boo'". NPR.
  68. Puente, Maria. (July 8, 2010). "'To Kill a Mockingbird': Endearing, enduring at 50 years". USA Today.
  69. Scalzi, John. (June 30, 2016). "The Great American Novel is 'To Kill a Mockingbird'". Los Angeles Times.
  70. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], p. 426.
  71. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], pp. 426—427.
  72. [[#Weisenburger. Weisenburger (2006)]], pp 1—2.
  73. Deresiewicz, William. (June 2014). "How the Novel Made the Modern World".
  74. Dalrymple, William. "Blood Meridian is the Great American Novel". Reader's Digest.
  75. Scott, A. O.. (May 21, 2006). "In Search of the Best". [[The New York Times]].
  76. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], pp. 317—348.
  77. Keller, Julia. (July 1, 2007). "The Great American Novel was written by".
  78. Burton, Charlie. (June 5, 2019). "How the Great American Novel made it to the movies".
  79. [[#Buell. Buell (2014)]], p. 57.
  80. McCrum, Robert. (August 3, 2015). "The 100 best novels: No 98 – Underworld by Don DeLillo (1997)". [[The Guardian]].
  81. Wiegand, David. (September 21, 1997). "We Are What We Waste / Don DeLillo's masterpiece fits a half-century of experience inside a baseball".
  82. Secher, Benjamin. (August 20, 2010). "Jonathan Franzen: One of America's Greatest Living Novelists". The Telegraph.
  83. Freeman, John. (September 1, 2012). "'Telegraph Avenue' by Michael Chabon". [[Boston Globe]].
  84. Schulz, Kathryn. (September 16, 2012). "Michael Chabon May Just Be the Perfect Writer for the Obama Age".
  85. Kessel, Joyce. (August 1, 2012). "Telegraph Avenue".
  86. (2015-08-01). "Write Away {{!}} Randy Boyagoda".
  87. O’Connell, Alex. (2013-10-19). "The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt".
  88. Showalter, Elaine. "Can the Great American Novel survive?".
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1860s-neologisms american-literature american-novels culture-of-the-united-states
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Great American Novel — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report