A Political Companion to Saul Bellow

by Gloria L. Cronin (Editor), Lee Trepanier (Editor)

Overview

Saul Bellow is one of the twentieth century's most influential, respected, and honored writers. His novels The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Mr. Sammler's Planet won the National Book Award, and Humboldt's Gift was awarded the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In addition, his plays garnered popular and critical acclaim, and some were produced on Broadway. Known for his insights into life in a post-Holocaust world, Bellow's explorations of modernity, Jewish identity, and the relationship between art and society have resonated with his readers, but because his writing is not overtly political, his politics have largely been ignored.

A Political Companion to Saul Bellow examines the author's novels, essays, short stories, and letters in order to illuminate his evolution from liberal to neoconservative. It investigates Bellow's exploration of the United States as a democratic system, the religious and ideological influences on his work, and his views on race relations, religious identity, and multiculturalism in the academy. Featuring a fascinating conclusion that draws from interviews with Bellow's sons, this accessible companion is an excellent resource for understanding the political thought of one of America's most acclaimed writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813141855
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	05/01/2013
Series:	Political Companions to Great American Authors Series
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gloria L. Cronin is professor of English at Brigham Young University. She is coeditor of the Saul Bellow Journal and executive director of the International Saul Bellow Society, as well as coauthor or coeditor of several books, including Jewish American and Holocaust Literature: Representation in the Postmodern World. Lee Trepanier is professor of political science at Saginaw Valley State University and coeditor of Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Globalization: Citizens without States.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword vii

Introduction: Saul Bellows Political Thought Lee Trepanier Gloria L. Cronin 1

1 Trotskyism in the Early Work of Saul Bellow Judie Newman 9

2 Bellow as Jew and Jewish Writer Ben Siegel 29

3 Saul Bellow and the Absent Woman Syndrome: Traces of India in "Leaving the Yellow House" Michael Austin 57

4 The Politics of Art: The Colonial Library Meets the Carnivalesque in Henderson the Rain King Daniel K. Muhlestein 67

5 The Jewish Atlantic-The Deployment of Blackness in Saul Bellow Carol R. Smith 101

6 "Washed Up on the Shores of Truth": Saul Bellows Post-Holocaust America Victoria Aarons 129

7 Mr. Sammler's Planet: Saul Bellows 1968 Speech at San Francisco State University Andrew Gordon 153

8 Biography, Elegy, and the Politics of Modernity in Saul Bellow's Ravelstein Willis Salomon 167

9 Our Father's Politics: Gregory, Adam, and Daniel Bellow Gloria L. Cronin 185

Saul Bellows Politics: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, 1947-Present Gloria L. Cronin 233

List of Contributors 277

Index 279

Editorial Reviews

"This volume pulls together an impressive array of authors and examinations of Bellow, presenting a diverse and substantive exploration of Bellow's work, his life, and the evolution of his political thought." — Lilly J. Goren, Carroll University

"The volume will most assuredly open a broader conversation in the academy and among the public about Bellow's political thought. This new information contributes not just to the study of the life and work of Saul Bellow, but to scholarship in American literature, American Jewish literature, Jewish studies, and other fields." — Holli Levitsky, Loyola Marymount University, and 2001—2002 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Literature in Poland

From the Publisher

The volume will most assuredly open a broader conversation in the academy and among the public about Bellow's political thought. This new information contributes not just to the study of the life and work of Saul Bellow, but to scholarship in American literature, American Jewish literature, Jewish studies, and other fields.

Holli Levitsky

This volume pulls together an impressive array of authors and examinations of Bellow, presenting a diverse and substantive exploration of Bellow's work, his life, and the evolution of his political thought.

Lilly J. Goren