Studies in American Literature (Hardbound - 2018)

During its early history, America was a group of British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States. Its literary tradition, therefore, began as closely linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, the unique American characteristics and the breadth of its production are now considered a separate identity.

The present work Studies in American Literature is like an anthology on seminal works in American literature. It presents a chronological account of American literature right from the beginning to the present day. The book includes articles on Franklin’s Autobiography, Emerson’s Essays, Thoreau’s Walden, and the novels of Hawthorne, Stowe, Melville, Twain, James, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Bellow, Morrison and Amy Tan. Besides, there are articles on the poetry of Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, Cummings, Hughes, Ginsberg and Plath. In addition, some major African-American writings have also been analysed to give the book a wider coverage.

The book will be highly useful to the students and teachers of American literature and researchers in this field.

Mallikarjun Patil is a novelist, short-story writer, translator and critic. A Reader in English, Karnatak University, Dharwad, he is a distinguished academician. He has written numerous articles and two works on Thomas Hardy, apart from Studies in American Literature, and British Literature. He has written a novel When the Ground Shakes Beneath, which has been translated into Kannada, Punjabi and Hindi. His A Don in the Jungle is a political novel on the forest brigand, Veerappan. He has translated Bajranga Korde’s English work Anna Bhau Sathe into Kannada for Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. He writes in Kannada as well. His two Kannada novels Raita Kallappana Aatmahatye and Bhukampa have established his reputation as an ambitious writer. In Shakespeare’s England… is a travel account of his education at Oxford and his visit to various places in England. Its Kannada version entitled, Shakespearana Ingandinalli… has seen five editions so far.