Ebook: Existentialism and alienation in American literature

After a discussion of the philosophical background—Kierkegaard to Heidegger—the author examines the existentialist thought of Camus and Sartre, as it applies particularly to the problem of social responsibility. With many illuminating comparisons in the realm of world literature, he then proceeds to trace the influence of alienation in American letters since World War I, and its relation to the existentialist answer. Among those discussed are O’Neill, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Faulkner, Dos Passos, Henry Miller, Styron, Salinger, Albee, Updike, Purdy, Bellow, Mailer and Baldwin. The first of its kind, the book provides a provocative and thoughtful criticism of contemporary American literature.