Scenes of Nature, Signs of Men: Essays on 19th and 20th Century American Literature

Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture

by Tony Tanner

This book is about the relationship of the American writer to his land and language - to the 'scene' and the 'sign', to the natural landscape and the inscriptions imposed upon it by men. Among the questions considered in the first section of the book are how does American Romantic writing differ from European; what are the peculiar problems faced by the American artist, and what roles does he adopt to tackle them; what kind of writing results when authors as different as Henry Adams and Mark Twain lament the vanishing of an earlier America, or when Adams and Henry James review their complex relationship to their homeland, or when W. D. Howells and Stephen Crane seek to define their themes in a specifically American setting. The second section of the book examines similar concerns in a number of contemporary writers, notably Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Donald Barthelme, John DeLillo, and William Gass.

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1987

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

Contains two chapters of interest:

"Toward an ultimate topography: the work of Joseph McElroy"

"William Gass's barns and bees"

[Goatboy]

Came for the late 20th century authors but was surprised how much Tanner's treatment of earlier 19th century authors tickled my brain. It's a special kind of literary nerd that seeks out lit crit as "enjoyable" reading, but give me someone who can write and think well, making their claim for their interpretation of an author I love, and I'm there all day long. I believe I've read another Tanner essay on Pynchon before. The only essay I couldn't get into was on The Bostonians. Everything else was at the very least interesting and enlightening. Often, much more so...