Into America's Dream-Dump: A Postmodern Study of the Hollywood Novel

by Bruce Chipman

Overview

This fascinating study explores the Hollywood novel as a culmination of the American Dream and a symbol of its betrayal. Born of promise and hope yet focused on immediate gratification and profit, Hollywood mirrors the contradictions inherent in the myth of the American Dream. The history of the development of the Hollywood novel reflects the deterioration of the American Dream during the 20th century as it has passed from utopian promise through decadence to nightmare and apocalypse. Along these lines, the genre provides a metaphor for the growing sense of futility, loss of hope, and increasing sense of chaos that characterizes a spiritually deprived America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761814665
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	09/08/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.84(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Bruce Chipman is Head of the English Department at Tatnall School and an Adjunct Associate Professor of English at the University of Delaware.

Table of Contents

chapter 1 Introduction chapter 2 The Promised Land-America's Last Colony chapter 3 The Early Hollywood Novel chapter 4 The Mature Hollywood Novel chapter 5 The Recent Hollywood Novel: Old Directions and New chapter 6 Conclusions chapter 7 Notes chapter 8 Bibliography chapter 9 Index

Editorial Reviews

...what is postmodern about the study is the time in which it is written, not its methodology; the readings are more traditional examinations of character, setting, and theme than poststructuralist or postmodern disassemblings.

Choice Reviews - R. D. Newman

...what is postmodern about the study is the time in which it is written, not its methodology; the readings are more traditional examinations of character, setting, and theme than poststructuralist or postmodern disassemblings.
— R. D. Newman, University of South Carolina

Choice