Picaresque

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

My first year in grad school included a seminar on the Picaresque in 20th
century American lit.  We read V. (Profane as picaro in particular--this
was before GR came out--"It dates me, I know" as Frau Gnahb sez).

Also on the list were THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH, THE NATURAL (much better
than the film, BTW), TROPIC OF CANCER, BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY, RABBIT RUN,
THE SOT-WEED FACTOR, THE GINGER MAN.  If not taken too literary as a genre,
the "picaresque" can be quite protean.

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)