Contemporary American Literature and Excremental Culture

Contemporary American Literature and Excremental Culture: American Sh*tanalyzes post-1960 scatological novels that utilize representations of humanwaste to address pressing issues, including pollution of waterways, environmentalracism, and militarism. Primarily examining postmodern parody, the book showsthe value of aesthetic renderings of sanitary engineering for compostingideologies that fuel a ruinous impact on the world. Drawing on late twentieth-centurypsychoanalytic thinkers Norman O. Brown, Frantz Fanon, and LeoBersani,American Sh*tshows the continued relevance of psychoanalyticinterpretations of contemporary fiction for understanding post-45 authors'engagement with waste. Ultimately, the monograph reveals how novelistsIshmael Reed, Jonathan Franzen, Gloria Naylor, Don DeLillo, and Samuel R.Delany critique subjects who abnegate their status as waste-producing beingsand bring readers back to embrace Winner of the 2019 Northeast Modern Language Association Book Awardfor Literary Criticism of English Language Literature