Love and Death in the American Novel

An important and influential work. Fiedler's interpretations are so universally Freudian that he might see things in these novels that aren't strictly subject to some Freudian analysis. Nonetheless, in our most acclaimed novels of primarily the 19th century, there are trends by male authors that cannot be ignored or explained away. The negative effects of religion, especially Puritanism, were pervasive and gender roles remained unhealthy for many decades. But his is a major contribution to feminist literary criticism and holds up pretty well. Hyper-masculinity continues to be a problem in society and even in our literature today. David Foster Wallace was highly critical of authors such as Updike, Mailer, and Roth for continuing what he show more called the "phallocrat" tradition in the 20th century. But anyone who has looked into Wallace's own experiences with women should understand how male authors continue to behave badly in private and write disingenuously about women in public. show less

Fiedler argues that American literature is immature because, instead of dealing with the mature themes of European literature -- love and death, it concentrates on friendship and terror, and, perhaps most immature of all, the friendships are between men. Women are almost entirely excluded. Despite the fact that this book has the reek of pre-Stonewall Freudianism, I still find much of what it has to say very compelling. There does seem to be a tendency of American novels to eschew women and to embrace the homosocial, and this does seem to have something to do with the wilderness and our attitudes towards race. However, even if you reject his overall argument, his homosocial readings of Huck Finn and the Leatherstocking tales is so bang show more on and explains so much about American television, that you really need to at least skim it if you want to delve into American literature or popular culture in any serious way. show less

I remember being quite impressed by this book 35 years ago. I wonder if it would seem quite as ground-breaking today?

Leslie A. Fiedler, Fiedler, literature, American literature, criticism, literary criticism, literary studies, literary theory, critical theory, American literary criticism, Box 189