American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940
American Literature in Transition Series

American Literature in Transition, 1930?1940 gathers together in a single volume preeminent critics and historians to offer an authoritative, analytic, and theoretically advanced account of the Depression era's key literary events. Many topics of canonical importance, such as protest literature, Hollywood fiction, the culture industry, and populism, receive fresh treatment. The book also covers emerging areas of interest, such as radio drama, bestsellers, religious fiction, internationalism, and middlebrow domestic fiction. Traditionally, scholars have treated each one of these issues in isolation. This volume situates all the significant literary developments of the 1930s within a single and capacious vision that discloses their hidden structural relations - their contradictions, similarities, and reciprocities. This is an excellent resource for undergraduate, graduate students, and scholars interested in American literary culture of the 1930s.

Introduction Ichiro Takayoshi; Part I. Themes: 1. The middle class Amy L. Blair; 2. Romance, marriage, and family Jennifer Haytock; 3. The working class Joseph B. Entin; 4. Sympathy and poverty John Marsh; 5. Black culture at home and abroad Etsuko Taketani; 6. The Southern heritage Michael Kreyling; 7. The literature of social protest in California David Wrobel; 8. Reckoning with Christianity Jason Stevens; 9. Diversity and American letters Yael Schacher; 10. This land is your land Robert B. Westbrook; 11. Look at the world! David Ekbladh and Ichiro Takayoshi; Part II. Formats: 12. Bestsellers David Welky; 13. Radio drama Neil Verma; 14. Crime fiction Charles J. Rzepka; 15. Documentary work Jeff Allred; 16. Modernism Milton A. Cohen; 17. The American stage Mark Fearnow; Part III. Institutions: 18. Federal Writers' Project Jerrold Hirsch; 19. Hollywood William Solomon; 20. Time Inc. Donal Harris; 21. The Communist Party Christopher Phelps; Echoes of the 1930s Morris Dickstein.

Ichiro Takayoshi teaches modern American literature and social thought at Tufts University, Massachusetts. He is the author of American Writers and the Approach of World War II, 1935–1941: A Literary History (Cambridge, 2015) and editor of American Literature in Transition: 1920–1930 (Cambridge, 2018). He is currently at work on a literary and intellectual history of the interwar decades.