The Critical Response to Truman Capote

by Joseph J. Waldmeir, John C. Waldmeir

Overview

One of the most controversial American authors of the twentieth century, Truman Capote is best known as the author of In Cold Blood (1966), a work of literary jourbanalism that recounts the slaughter of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. But he also wrote numerous short stories, dozens of nonfiction pieces for popular magazines, several other novels, and some works for Hollywood and Broadway. Unlike In Cold Blood, many of his earlier works were criticized for their focus on character at a time when other writers were using fiction to explore historical events and social and political positions. Since his death in 1984, scholarly interest in Capote and his works has grown considerably. Over the last few decades, the reaction to his works has been rich and varied. This volume chronicles the critical reception to Capote's writings.

Included are previously published reviews and essays, along with several pieces written especially for this book. The selections are grouped in several broad sections, which examine such topics as overviews and interviews, the genres in which he wrote, and his particular works, his literary documentaries, and his relation to other writers and critics. Each section is organized chronologically and traces not only the development of Capote's talents but also the evolution of critical attitudes toward his works. Both favorable and unfavorable analyses by commentators and scholars such as Ihab Hassan, George Jean Nathan, Leslie Fiedler, Diana Trilling, Kenneth Tynan, and many others provide a balanced view of Capote's writings. A comprehensive introduction covers the materials included in the book along with many other relevant texts, and extensive bibliographic material records the present state of Capote scholarship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313306662
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/28/1999
Series:	Critical Responses in Arts and Letters , #32
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	733,042
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.69(d)
Lexile:	1360L (what's this?)

About the Author

JOSEPH J. WALDMEIR is Emeritus Professor of English at Michigan State University. He is the author or editor of several books, and his articles have appeared in such jourbanals as Modern Fiction Studies, Southern Folklore Quarterly, Studies in Short Fiction, Jourbanal of American Culture, The Hemingway Review, and Jourbanal of Modern Literature.

JOHN C. WALDMEIR is Associate Academic Dean and Assistant Professor of English at Loras College. He is the author of The American Trilogy 1990-1937: Norris, Dreiser, Dos Passos and the History of Mammon (1995) and has published in such jourbanals as English Language Notes and Jourbanal of American Culture.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword by Cameron Northouse
Chronology
Introduction
Overviews and Interviews
Plate du Jour: Soul Food: Truman Capote on Black Culture by Cecil M. Brown
The Metaphorical World of Truman Capote by John W. Aldridge
The Daydream and Nightmare of Narcissus by Ihab H. Hassan
Capote As Gay American Author by Peter G. Christensen
Genres and Individual Works
Stage and Fiction
On Capote's Grass Harp by Eric Bentley
The Grass Menagerie by George Jean Nathan
The Stage: House of Flowers by Richard Hayes
Short Stories
Capote's Tales by Leslie Fiedler
Truman Capote: The Revelation of the Broken Image by Paul Levine
From Gothic to Camp by Irving Malin
Novels
Other Voices, Other Rooms: Oedipus Between the Covers by Marvin E. Mengeling
A Blizzard of Butterflies by H. P. Lazarus
Birth of a Heroine by Ihab H. Hassan
A Final Door by Terrence Rafferty
Fact into Fiction
Capote's Crime and Punishment by Diana Trilling
The Kansas Farm Murders by Kenneth Tynan
The "Non-Fiction" Novel by William Wiegand
Real Toads in Real Gardens: Reflections on the Art of Non-Fiction Fiction and the Legacy of Truman Capote by David Galloway
Religion and Style in THE DOGS BARK and MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS by John C. Waldmeir
"Fire, Fire, Fire Flowing Like a River, River, River": History and Postmodernism in Truman Capote's HANDCARVED COFFINS by Jack Hicks
Capote and Others
Gothic As Vortex: The Form of Horror in Capote, Faulkner, and Styron by J. Douglas Perry
Glimpses of "A Good Man" in Capote's IN COLD BLOOD by Jon Tuttle
Variations on a Dream: Katherine Anne Porter and Truman Capote by William L. Nance
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY and IN COLD BLOOD: Turbaning Case History into Art by John J. McAleer
Bibliography
Major Works and Themes by Peter G. Christensen
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

An anthology of critical commentary on Truman Capote, bringing together a representative selection of approaches and attitudes, both favorable and unfavorable, toward his work. Essays are organized in sections on overviews and interviews, genres and individual works, fact into fiction, and Capote and others. Selections illustrate the growth in critical response to Capote's work as that body of work expanded from his short stories to experiments in style and content. Includes a chronology, a bibliographic essay, and a selected bibliography of works by and about Capote. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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