Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
In Fire and Power William D. Atwill maps the cultural contours of space-age America through readings of some of the era's most popular and influential narratives: Saul Bellow's Mr. Sammler's Planet, John Updike's Rabbit Redux, Norman Mailer's Of a Fire on the Moon, Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, and Don DeLillo's Ratner's Star.
Together, Atwill demonstrates, these key texts comprise a literary history of the space age, an exploration of the novel's possibilities in uncertain times, and a disturbing critique of postwar society.
The massive technological enterprise known as the Manned Space Program was, in Atwill's words, "the historical marker of our age," and in our race to the moon, he says, Bellow, Updike, Mailer, Wolfe, Pynchon, and DeLillo found a trope for the postmodern condition. To these writers, the space program was the most visible and outward sign of a radical shift in the culture that fostered it.
This shift was from modernism's search for interior, individual unity amidst chaos to the post-modern perception of the individual's fragmentation and uncertain standing in the world.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English
Subjects
American literature, Astronautics, History, History and criticism, Literature and technology, Political aspects of Astronautics, Social aspects of Astronautics, United States, United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Political aspects, Social aspects, Ruimtevaart, Postmodernisme, Prosa, Postmoderne, Raumfahrt (Motiv)Places
United StatesTimes
20th centuryShowing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
Fire and Power: The American Space Program as Postmodern Narrative
2010, University of Georgia Press
in English
0820337730 9780820337739
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
2
Fire and power: the American space program as postmodern narrative
1994, University of Georgia Press
in English
0820316474 9780820316475
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [157]-168) and index.
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created April 1, 2008
- 9 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
July 14, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
January 15, 2023 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
December 14, 2020 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
November 17, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record |