The Evolving American Landscape in Edgar Lee Masters's [Sic] Spoon River Anthology

Date of Graduation

Summer 1993

Degree

Master of Arts in English

Department

English

Committee Chair

Donald Holliday

Abstract

Since its original reception, literary critics have relegated Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology to "revolt from the village" literature causing the deeper cconcerns that Masters addressed in the Anthology to be overlooked, or dismissed. These concerns center on variations of two myths that have powerfully shaped American society: the Garden and the Wasteland. A careful reading on the Spoon River Anthology informed by secondary texts on Masters' writing and others that discuss the mythic underpinnings of American society shows that Masters achieves a complex portayal of American culture as the nation entered the modern industrial era.

Subject Categories

English Language and Literature

Copyright

© Lea Ann Flanagan

Citation-only

Dissertation/Thesis

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