The Great American Novel (2024)

A Journey Through American Literature

Kevin J. Hayes

Published online:

03 March 2015

Published in print:

15 March 2012

Online ISBN:

9780190252892

Print ISBN:

9780199862078

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A Journey Through American Literature

Kevin J. Hayes

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Kevin J. Hayes

Kevin J. Hayes

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Pages

136–157

  • Published:

    March 2012

Cite

Hayes, Kevin J., 'The Great American Novel', A Journey Through American Literature (New York, 2012; online edn, Oxford Academic, 3 Mar. 2015), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199862078.003.0007, accessed 27 Nov. 2024.

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Abstract

This chapter examines the long-standing literary ideal of the great American novel. It first traces the origins of this famous phrase. It then considers several works including Frank Norris's essay “The Great American Novelist” (1902), which suggested that a novel could transcend its local setting and apply to people throughout the nation; F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby (1925), which recapitulates the concept of the American dream; and postmodern novels such as Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957), Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961), and Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962). The chapter also discusses the rise of the New Journalism in the 1960s, when journalists became the literary voices for the age.

Keywords: American novels, novelists, writers, Frank Norris, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Joseph Heller

Subject

Literary Studies (American)

Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online

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