Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- The Holograph Manuscript / Roy S. Simmonds -- Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath as Socialist/Communist Propaganda / Danica Čerče -- A Shared Poetic: The Influence of Ricketts’s Literary Philosophy on Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath / Katharine A. Rodger -- Fermenting The Grapes of Wrath: Distilling the Sweet Concord of Brotherhood and Positive Social Action From a Tradition of Anger and Violence / Michael J. Meyer -- Sacred Path: Considering “Road” as Religious Image in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath / Christine Marie Hilger -- “He’s—a kind of a man”: Jim Casy’s Spiritual Journey in The Grapes of Wrath / Kelly MacPhail -- Biblical Wilderness In The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck’s Multi-layered Use of the Biblical Image / Alec Gilmore -- Religion in The Grapes of Wrath: A Reader’s Guide / John Clark Pratt -- “Where Is The Dust?”: James Agee’s Lost Review of John Ford’s Film Adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath / Jason Arthur -- The Joad Collective: Class Consciousness and Social Reorganization in The Grapes of Wrath / Florian Schwieger -- A Seditious Proposal / Scott Henkel -- A Radical Revisioning: Understanding and Repositioning The Grapes of Wrath as Political “Propaganda” / Lisa A. Kirby -- Dis/Locating the Radical in The Grapes of Wrath / Janet Galligani Casey -- Monopolizing Monsters: Demise of the Family Farm and the Rise of Corporate Farming in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath / Robert Miltner -- “In Between a Past and Future Town”: Home, the Unhomely, and The Grapes of Wrath / Frank Eugene Cruz -- Steinbeck’s Civil War: War as Peace in the American 1930s / Robert Ficociello -- Displacements and Encampments: John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath / Henry Veggian -- Making and Breaking Golden Rules: Adaptationist Analysis of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath / Jeff P. Turpin -- “It ain’t kin we? It’s will we?”: John Steinbeck’s Land Ethic in The Grapes of Wrath / Kathleen Hicks -- Subverting Eugenic Discourse: Making the Weak Strong in John Steinbeck’s Their Blood Is Strong and The Grapes of Wrath / Ashley Craig Lancaster -- Okie Outlaws and Dust Bowl Fugitives: John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Discourses of Ethnicity and Race / Erin Royston Battat -- “We Ain’t Foreign”: Constructing the Joads’ White Citizenship / Sarah Wald -- Breaking Bread: The Sympathetic Effects of Sharing Food in The Grapes of Wrath / Howard Sklar -- The Poetry of Folks Talkin’: Slang, Dialect, and Colloquial Diction in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath / Robert C. Evans -- John Steinbeck and the King James Version: The Influence of Biblical Syntax on the Interchapters of The Grapes of Wrath / Deborah Cosier Solomon -- “The Whole Texture of the Country at Once”: Steinbeck’s General Chapters in The Grapes of Wrath / Daniel Griesbach -- A Defense of Steinbeck’s Intercalary Chapters in The Grapes of Wrath / John J. Han -- A Picture and an Experience Emerge: The Pivotal Role of Chapter Six in The Grapes of Wrath / Maggie Seligman -- The Grapes of Wrath and Literary Naturalism / Charles L. Etheridge -- Naturalism and Steinbeck’s “Curious Compromise” in The Grapes of Wrath / Alan Gibbs -- Re-Viewing John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath / Nina Allen.

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The Grapes of Wrath: A Re-Consideration is a collection of essays compiled by Steinbeck bibliographer, Michael J. Meyer, in celebration of the novel's seventieth anniversary. Following the pattern of previous books in the Dialogue series, this study presents analyses by senior Steinbeck scholars and also introduces several new voices. Issues addressed include accusations about the novel's sentimentality, speculations about its status as a work of naturalism, and questions about its experimental structure. In addition, the language and imagery of the novel, its religious overtones, and its reputation as a radical work of art are revisited with fresh insights. Because The Grapes of Wrath holds iconic stature as an American masterpiece, both scholarly and lay readers will welcome this two volume set since it includes many new avenues of approach that will encourage greater insights, deeper understandings, and further explorations of the complexities of Steinbeck’s achievements in this classic work of art.