engl 291: The American Novel Since 1945, Lecture 12 - Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Henry M
scuffling at gmail.com
Thu Feb 16 13:40:56 CST 2012
http://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-291/lecture-12
Professor Hungerford introduces this lecture by reviewing the ways
that authors on the syllabus up to this point have dealt with the
relationship between language and life, that collection of elusive or
obvious things that for literary critics fall under the category of
"the Real." The Real can shout out from a work of art, as it sometimes
does in Black Boy, or haunt it, as in Lolita. It can elude authors
like Kerouac and Barth for widely different reasons. Placing Pynchon
firmly in the context of the political upheaval of the 1960s that he
is often seen to avoid, Hungerford argues that Pynchon--no less than a
writer of faith like Flannery O'Connor--is deeply invested in
questions of meaning and emotional response, so that The Crying of Lot
49 is a sincere call for connection, and a lament for loss, as much as
it is an ironic, playful puzzle.
--
AsB4,
٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶
Henry Mu
http://astore.amazon.com/tdcoccamsaxe-20
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