Hope and dread in Montana literature / Ken Egan, Jr.

ISBN:

9780874175578

Title:

Author:

Egan, Ken, 1956-

Personal Author:

Egan, Ken, 1956-

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 207 pages).

Series:

Western literature series

Contents:

Worlds Transformed, 1862-1940 -- Vanishing Americans -- Don't Fence Me In -- A Handful of Dust -- The Tragic Sensibility, 1940-Present -- A Tale of Two Novelists -- Moons for the Misbegotten -- Jeremiads -- Provisional Hopes, 1940-Present -- The Return of the Native -- Even Cowgirls Get Over the Blues -- New Homes on the Range -- Conclusion: Settling Down in Montana.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

American literature -- Montana -- History and criticism.

Authors, American -- Homes and haunts -- Montana.

Frontier and pioneer life in literature.

Geographic Term:

Montana -- Intellectual life.

Montana -- In literature.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2003

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
810.99786 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

"Egan's objective, in this survey of Montana's literary history, is to demonstrate the roots of the state's literature in its conflicted history and complex mixture of racial and ethnic traditions and, at the same time, to offer the possibility of thoughtful solutions to the West's daunting social and environmental dilemmas through the insights of some of the state's best writers. From the narratives of early explorers and ranchers, Native Americans, and settler women through the works of such major twentieth-century luminaries as A. B. Guthrie and Ivan Doig, Egan traces the evolution of Montanans' early fantastic dreams of economic, religious, and cultural success into failure and despair, violence and tragedy. Yet, side by side with these tales of woe are tales of endurance and even triumph, evidence of the strength and creative potential of the state's people."--BOOK JACKET. Book jacket.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

This accessible book opens by pondering instances of right-wing militancy in Montana as examples of dread linked to the state's native pessimism. Egan's purpose in highlighting the "dialectic of dread and hope" in Montana life and literature is to encourage a more realistic intellectual balance. He first considers Montana's "prehistory" (before 1940), examining work by Plenty Coups, Two Leggings, and Mourning Dove, along with ranch and homestead narratives, in which the history of loss and failure first induced the pessimistic tone. Next Egan appreciates the canonical tragic novels of D'Arcy McNickle and A.B. Guthrie Jr. and the history-jeremiads of Joseph Kinsey Howard and K. Ross Toole--perhaps too easily denigrating the "outlanders" Richard Hugo, Jim Harrison, Richard Ford, and Thomas McGuane. Finally, he praises more recent work offering "provisional hope," especially that of James Welch, William Kittredge, and Ivan Doig and women writers Cyra McFadden, Mary Clearman Blew, Mildred Walker, and Deirdre McNamer. Although the author occasionally oversimplifies, his book is free of jargon and incorporates personal reflection. It belongs on the shelf with William Bevis's Ten Tough Trips: Montana Writers and the West (CH, May'91) and The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology, ed. by William Kittredge and Annick Smith (1988). ^BSumming Up: Recommended. All collections supporting study of regional literature. J. J. Wydeven Bellevue University

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Part I Worlds Transformed, 1862-1940
Chapter 1 Vanishing Americans	p. 5
Chapter 2 Don't Fence Me In	p. 28
Chapter 3 A Handful of Dust	p. 41
Part II The Tragic Sensibility, 1940-Present
Chapter 4 A Tale of Two Novelists	p. 57
Chapter 5 Moons for the Misbegotten	p. 76
Chapter 6 Jeremiads	p. 93
Part III Provisional Hopes, 1940-Present
Chapter 7 The Return of the Native	p. 117
Chapter 8 Even Cowgirls Get Over the Blues	p. 139
Chapter 9 New Homes on the Range	p. 159
Conclusion: Settling Down in Montana	p. 180
Notes	p. 185
Bibliography	p. 197
Index	p. 205

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Table of Contents