Cambridge Companion to American Fiction After 1945

Each generation revises literary history and this is nowheremore evident than in the post-Second World War period. This 2011Companion offers a comprehensive, authoritative and accessibleoverview of the diversity of American fiction since the SecondWorld War. Essays by nineteen distinguished scholars providecritical insights into the significant genres, historical contexts,cultural diversity and major authors during a period of enormousAmerican global political and cultural power. This power isovershadowed, nevertheless, by national anxieties growing out ofevents ranging from the Civil Rights Movement to the rise offeminism; from the Cold War and its fear of Communism and nuclearwarfare to the Age of Terror and its different yet related fears ofthe 'Other'. American fiction since 1945 has faithfully chronicledthese anxieties. An essential reference guide, this Companionprovides a chronology of the period, as well as guides to furtherreading.