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E-book
Author Stacy, Jason, 1970- author.

Title Spoon River America : Edgar Lee Masters and the myth of the American small town / Jason Stacy
Published Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2021]

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Description 1 online resource (234 pages)
Contents Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Origin Stories -- 2. The Premodern Midwest -- 3. Frontiers: Closed and Opened -- 4. Rampant Yokelisms -- 5. Reception -- 6. The Village Revolt -- 7. Main Street, U.S.A. -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Back Cover
Summary "A literary and cultural milestone, Spoon River Anthology captured an idea of the rural Midwest that became a bedrock myth of life in small-town America. Jason Stacy places the book within the atmosphere of its time and follows its progress as the poetry took root and thrived. Published by Edgar Lee Masters in 1915, Spoon River Anthology won praise from modernists while becoming an ongoing touchstone for American popular culture. Stacy charts the ways readers embraced, debated, and reshaped Masters's work in literary controversies and culture war skirmishes; in films and other media that over time saw the small town as idyllic then conflicted then surreal; and as the source of three archetypes-populist, elite, and exile-that endure across the landscape of American culture in the twenty-first century. A wide-ranging reconsideration of a literary landmark, Spoon River America tells the story of how a Midwesterner's poetry helped change a nation's conception of itself"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on May 26, 2021)
Subject Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950. Spoon River anthology.
SUBJECT Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950. Spoon River anthology
Spoon River anthology (Masters, Edgar Lee) fast
Subject City and town life in literature.
National characteristics, American, in literature.
American poetry -- Middle West -- History and criticism
LITERARY CRITICISM -- General.
American poetry
City and town life in literature
Literature
National characteristics, American, in literature
SUBJECT Middle West -- In literature
Subject Middle West
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020051238
ISBN 9780252052736
0252052730