An authoritative guide to American literature, this
Companion examines the experimental forms, socio-cultural changes, literary movements, and major authors of the early 20th century. This
Companion provides authoritative and wide-ranging guidance on early twentieth-century American fiction.
- Considers commonly studied authors such as Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway, alongside key texts of the period by Richard Wright, Charles Chesnutt, Zora Neale Hurston, and Anzia Yezierska
- Examines how the works of these diverse writers have been interpreted in their own day and how current readings have expanded our understanding of their cultural and literary significance
- Covers a broad range of topics, including the First and Second World Wars, literary language differences, author celebrity, the urban landscape, modernism, the Jazz Age, the Great Depression, regionalism, and African-American fiction
- Gives students the contextual information necessary for formulating their own critiques of classic American fiction
Addressing whether Socrates was a hedonist, the author examines the passages in Plato's early dialogues that are the most disputed on the topic. He maintains that Socrates identifies pleasant activity with virtuous activity, describing Socrates' hedonism as one of activity, not sensation.
