American Revenge Narratives A Collection of Critical Essays [Hardcover]

American Revenge Narratives critically examines the nations vengeful storytelling tradition. With essays on late twentieth and twenty-first century fiction, film, and television, it maps the coordinates of the revenge genres contemporary reinvention across American culture. By surveying American revenge narratives, this book measures how contemporary payback plots appraise the nations political, social, and economic inequities.

The volumes essays collectively make the case that retribution is a defining theme of post-war American culture and an artistic vehicle for critique. In another sense, this book presents a scholarly coming to terms with the nations love for vengeance. By investigating recent iterations of an ancient genre, contributors explore how the revenge narrative evolves and thrives within American literary and filmic imagination. Taken together, the books diverse chapters attempt to understand American cultures seemingly inexhaustible production of vengeful tales.

1. Introduction  Kyle Wiggins

Part I. Revenge on the Page

2. Wakening The Eyes of Dreamers: Revenge in Carson McCullerss The Ballad of the Sad Caf?  Lisa Hoffman-Reyes

3. Toni Morrisons Beloved: A Tragedy of Revenge and Reparation  Maureen E. Ruprecht Fadem

4. Masculinity in Don DeLilllos White Noise: Mapping the Self, Killing the Other  Michael James Rizza

5. From Revenge to Restorative Justice in Louise Erdrichs The Plague of Doves, The Round House, and LaRose  Seema Kurup

6. The Great (White) Wail: Percival Everetts The Water Cure and Thomas Jeffersons Notes on the State of Virginia