Critical Perspectives on American Literature: A Festschrift for Professor F. Abdul Rahim

This Festschrift volume of 37 essays offers fresh insights into the repertoire of American Literature from the beginnings to the present theoretically as well as practically. Theoretically, it examines what constitutes American imagination geographically, culturally, socially, politically and so on. Practically, the volume undertakes a study of major white, black, and brown (Asian) American writers and their writings, including critical positions. In fact, the essays are organized into these three major categories. Some of the notable topics discussed are ecology, gender deconstruction, paradox, epistemology, autonomy, commitment, capitalism, postmodern humanism, catharsis, focalization, disintegration, violence, existence, quest, apocalypse, woman-hood, motherhood, victim and victor, race, stereotypes, identity, anguish, and intercultural relations. This wide variety of perspectives illumines the critical black holes in American Literature.