Memory and Identity in Modern and Postmodern American Literature

This book discusses how American literary modernism and postmodernism interconnect memory and identity and if, and how, the intertwining of memory and identity has been related to the dominant socio-cultural trends in the United States or the specific historical contexts in the world. The books opening chapter is the interrogation of the narrators memories of Jay Gatsby and his life in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby. The second chapter shows how in William Faulkners Light in August memory impacts the search for identities in the storylines of the characters. The third chapter discusses the correlation between memory, self, and culture in Tennessee Williamss A Streetcar Named Desire. Discussing Robert Coovers Geralds Party, the fourth chapter reveals that memory and identity are contextualized and that cognitive processes, including memory, are grounded in the bodys interaction with the environment, featuring dehumanized characters, whose identities appear as role-plays. The subsequent chapter is the analysis of how Jonathan Safran Foers Everything Is Illuminated deals with the heritage of Holocaust memories and postmemories. The last chapter focuses on Thomas Pynchons Against the Day, the reconstructive nature of memory, and the politics and production of identity in Southeastern Europe.