Robert Penn Warren's All the king's men /
Robert Penn Warren's All the king's men /
edited by Michael J. Meyer and Hugh J. Ingrasci.
- 1 online resource (xiii, 295 pages) : illustrations.
- Dialogue ; 15 .
- Dialogue 15. Literature and Cultural Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2012, ISBN: 9789004357907. .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Preliminary Material -- Introduction / The Text of the “Restored” Edition of All The King's Men / The Great Disconnect: Jack Burden and History in All The King’s Men / Jack Burden: Successful Historian in All The King’s Men / “The Awful Responsibility of Time”: Understanding History in All The King’s Men / “The Theory of Historical Costs”: Jack Burden, History, and the (Mis)Representation of the Past in Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men / Twitches and Trigger-fingers: Accidental Homicides and Suicides in Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men / The Inversion of Home in All The King’s Men / “Little Jackie Made It Stick, All Right”: The Implicating Narrative of Jack Burden / Theological Reflections on Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men / The Many Faces of God: Layered Imagery of the Deity in Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men / 'All The King’s Men,' Spiritual Aesthetics, and the Reader / Midcentury Jack vs. Millennium Jack: The Ongoing Burden of Identity on Film / Abstract of Arguments -- Author Biographies -- Index. Hugh Ingrasci -- Noel Polk -- Larry A. Gray -- James Perkins -- Ben Railton -- Andrew M. Hakim -- Alex Wulff -- Robert McParland -- Bert Emerson -- Mark T. Mitchell -- Michael J. Meyer -- Robert Koppelman -- Cecilia Donohue --
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The twelve essayists in this critical collection examine anew two fundamental concerns of Penn Warren’s landmark work, which has as valid a claim to being “The Great American Novel” as any in the literary canon. The first challenging conundrum these critics examine is narrator Jack Burden’s adequacy as a historiographer and the impact of his reliability upon his alter-ego-persona-narrative: does Jack succeed in becoming an able historian of his family and of Willie Stark’s political career, or does he become self-delusive and resort to a “selectively culled” history to justify himself to his audience as a trustworthy chronicler of the Willie Stark era of Jack’s life. The second major thematic motif these essays explore is Penn Warren’s implicit positing of a spiritual dimension to Jack Burden’s quest for a viable identity to sustain him in his ultimate decision to join humanity and finally live in the history he’s so long lived outside of, as a cynically un-involved observer. The provocative efforts of these twelve scholars, fifty-six years after the publication of All the King’s Men , testifies to the novel’s great philosophical and psychological depths, riches that continue to induce new readers and returning readers to shadow Jack Burden in his quest of the examined life: the quest to fully engage ourselves in becoming ever more human despite our being flawed, ever-plagued by our social shortcomings, as are “all the king’s men.”
9789401207720
10.1163/9789401207720 DOI
Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989. All the king's men.
All the king's men (Warren, Robert Penn)
PS3545.A748 / Z49 2012
813.52
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Preliminary Material -- Introduction / The Text of the “Restored” Edition of All The King's Men / The Great Disconnect: Jack Burden and History in All The King’s Men / Jack Burden: Successful Historian in All The King’s Men / “The Awful Responsibility of Time”: Understanding History in All The King’s Men / “The Theory of Historical Costs”: Jack Burden, History, and the (Mis)Representation of the Past in Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men / Twitches and Trigger-fingers: Accidental Homicides and Suicides in Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men / The Inversion of Home in All The King’s Men / “Little Jackie Made It Stick, All Right”: The Implicating Narrative of Jack Burden / Theological Reflections on Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men / The Many Faces of God: Layered Imagery of the Deity in Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men / 'All The King’s Men,' Spiritual Aesthetics, and the Reader / Midcentury Jack vs. Millennium Jack: The Ongoing Burden of Identity on Film / Abstract of Arguments -- Author Biographies -- Index. Hugh Ingrasci -- Noel Polk -- Larry A. Gray -- James Perkins -- Ben Railton -- Andrew M. Hakim -- Alex Wulff -- Robert McParland -- Bert Emerson -- Mark T. Mitchell -- Michael J. Meyer -- Robert Koppelman -- Cecilia Donohue --
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The twelve essayists in this critical collection examine anew two fundamental concerns of Penn Warren’s landmark work, which has as valid a claim to being “The Great American Novel” as any in the literary canon. The first challenging conundrum these critics examine is narrator Jack Burden’s adequacy as a historiographer and the impact of his reliability upon his alter-ego-persona-narrative: does Jack succeed in becoming an able historian of his family and of Willie Stark’s political career, or does he become self-delusive and resort to a “selectively culled” history to justify himself to his audience as a trustworthy chronicler of the Willie Stark era of Jack’s life. The second major thematic motif these essays explore is Penn Warren’s implicit positing of a spiritual dimension to Jack Burden’s quest for a viable identity to sustain him in his ultimate decision to join humanity and finally live in the history he’s so long lived outside of, as a cynically un-involved observer. The provocative efforts of these twelve scholars, fifty-six years after the publication of All the King’s Men , testifies to the novel’s great philosophical and psychological depths, riches that continue to induce new readers and returning readers to shadow Jack Burden in his quest of the examined life: the quest to fully engage ourselves in becoming ever more human despite our being flawed, ever-plagued by our social shortcomings, as are “all the king’s men.”
9789401207720
10.1163/9789401207720 DOI
Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989. All the king's men.
All the king's men (Warren, Robert Penn)
PS3545.A748 / Z49 2012
813.52