Ideology and Aesthetics in American Literature and Arts

This book includes contributions by African, East and West European, Asian and North American scholars which deal with and compare ideological and non-ideological approaches to the analysis of literary, artistic as well as popular works (popular music) mostly by American authors. Most of the essays deal with a way various aspects of American identity are depicted, represented, treated, ideologized and aestheticized in different literary genres, forms of art and media. The contributions offer multidisciplinary, cross-cultural and comparative perspectives and represent a diversity of scholarly voices ranging from the general discussion on the relationship between ideology and art (Anton Pokrivcßk), ideology and multiculturalism (Cristina Garrigós). They also give the analysis of poetry (Pokrivcßk, Obododima Oha), postmodern fiction (Pi-Hua Ni, Cristina Garrigós), drama (Zoe Detsi-Diamanti, Csaba Csapó) as well as the comparative analysis of the depiction of the identity of North American Indians in such different media as literature and film (Michal Peprník). In addition to this, the book includes the analysis of Black rap music (Wojciech Kallas).

Autorentext

Jaroslav Kunír is the Associate Professor at the University of Preov, Slovakia, where he teaches such courses as American literature, British literature, Australian short story, literary theory and criticism. His research includes American postmodern and contemporary fiction, Australian postmodern fiction, and critical reception of American, British and Australian literature in Slovakia. He is the author of Poetika americkej postmodernej prózy (Richard Brautigan and Donald Barthelme) [Poetics of American Postmodern Fiction: Richard Brautigan and Donald Barthelme]. Preov: Impreso, 2001; and Australian Literature in Contexts. Banská Bystrica: Trian, 2003.