Modern American literature is too vast and varied to be studied between the covers of a single book. Although limited by space, a sincere effort has been made in this anthology to put together deeply perceptive articles on some of the most influential and representative American authors and literary works. Among the writers studied here are Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Earnest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Toni Morrison, Harold Robbins, Eugene O’Neill and Edward Albee who represent most of the important genres and trends in American literature today. Thoreau and Whitman have been included not because they are ‘modern’ but because of their immense contribution to the evolution of the American thought and literature. The novels and plays specially focussed upon are: The Old Man and the Sea, Look Homeward, Angel, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Where Love Has Gone, Desire Under the Elms, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Delicate Balance and Tiny Alice. It is earnestly hoped that teachers, research students and scholars interested in American literature will find this book immensely useful.

Table of Contents:
1. Humanism: A Quest for New Paradigm in Modern American Literature —Arjun Kumar 2. Walden: A Way of Life —Mallikarjun Patil 3. Walt Whitman: A Poet of All Ages —Mallikarjun Patil 4. Crossing Borders: Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in Literary Anthropological Folkoristic Perspective —Janet Wilson 5. Earnest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea: An Inspiration to the New Millennium —Mallikarjun Patil 6. The Old Man and the Sea and Ganga: Intertextuality and Archetype —Rama Kundu 7. Incommunicable Mythography: Thomas Wolfe's Novel Look Homeward, Angel —Prem Prakash 8. The Alienated Self: Searching for Space in Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Sula —S.P. Swain and Sarbajit Das 9. The Element of Protest in Toni Morrison's Sula —Monika Gupta 10. Post-mortem of Marriage in Harold Robbins's Where Love Has Gone —Rajeshwar Mittapalli 11. Sex and Property as Means of Tragedy in O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms —Basavaraj Naikar 12. The Streetcar Named Desire: A Tragedy of Passion —Basavaraj Naikar 13. "Everything Becomes...Too Late Finally"— An Analysis of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance —R. Saraswathi 14. Edward Albee's Tiny Alice: A Reinterpretation —R. Saraswathi 15. The Dramatic Art of Tennessee Williams with Reference to Lyrical Sublime Elements in his Plays: The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire —Abha Sharma 16. Conflict between Human Dignity and Vested Interests with Reference to Miller's Plays: Death of a Salesman and The Crucible —Vinod Kumar Maheshwari 17. A View from the Bridge: A Modern American Tragedy —Basavaraj Naikar 18. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers: An American Travelogue —Basavaraj Naikar Contributors