Stafford introduces the rich interpretive possibilities in a contextual analysis of literature. He finds in
Moby Dick
,
The Wings of the Dove
, and
Absalom, Absalom!
three symbolic Americas linked through images of whiteness that are collectively prophetic. Three novels of the 1920s (by Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald) are linked by themes of innocence; three of the 1970s (by Bellows, Malamud, and Updike), by black-white pairs. His flexible method also examines film.
Originally published in 1981.
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