Robert Penn Warren's All the king's men
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Robert Penn Warren's All the king's men
（Dialogue / edited by Michael J. Meyer, 15）
Rodopi, 2012
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The twelve essayists in this critical collection examine anew two fundamental concerns of Penn Warren's landmark work, which has as valid a claim to being "The Great American Novel" as any in the literary canon. The first challenging conundrum these critics examine is narrator Jack Burden's adequacy as a historiographer and the impact of his reliability upon his alter-ego-persona-narrative: does Jack succeed in becoming an able historian of his family and of Willie Stark's political career, or does he become self-delusive and resort to a "selectively culled" history to justify himself to his audience as a trustworthy chronicler of the Willie Stark era of Jack's life. The second major thematic motif these essays explore is Penn Warren's implicit positing of a spiritual dimension to Jack Burden's quest for a viable identity to sustain him in his ultimate decision to join humanity and finally live in the history he's so long lived outside of, as a cynically un-involved observer.
The provocative efforts of these twelve scholars, fifty-six years after the publication of All the King's Men, testifies to the novel's great philosophical and psychological depths, riches that continue to induce new readers and returning readers to shadow Jack Burden in his quest of the examined life: the quest to fully engage ourselves in becoming ever more human despite our being flawed, ever-plagued by our social shortcomings, as are "all the king's men."
Table of Contents
Michael J. Meyer: Preface
Hugh Ingrasci: Introduction
Noel Polk: The Text of the "Restored" Edition of All The King's Men
Larry A. Gray: The Great Disconnect: Jack Burden and History in All The King's Men
James Perkins: Jack Burden: Successful Historian in All The King's Men
Ben Railton: "The Awful Responsibility of Time": Understanding History in All The King's Men
Andrew M. Hakim: "The Theory of Historical Costs": Jack Burden, History, and the (Mis)Representation of the Past in Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men
Alex Wulff: Twitches and Trigger-fingers: Accidental Homicides and Suicides in Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men
Robert McParland: The Inversion of Home in All The King's Men
Bert Emerson: "Little Jackie Made It Stick, All Right": The Implicating Narrative of Jack Burden
Mark T. Mitchell: Theological Reflections on Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men
Michael J. Meyer: The Many Faces of God: Layered Imagery of the Deity in Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men
Robert Koppelman: 'All The King's Men', Spiritual Aesthetics, and the Reader
Cecilia Donohue: Midcentury Jack vs. Millennium Jack: The Ongoing Burden of Identity on Film
Abstract of Arguments
Author Biographies
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"