Look Abroad, Angel
Thomas Wolfe and the Geographies of Longing
Jedidiah Evans
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Imprint: University of Georgia Press
Published: 02/2020
Pages: 252
Subject: Literary Criticism
Print ISBN: 9780820356464
eBook ISBN: 9780820356457
DESCRIPTION
Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) was
one of the most influential southern writers, widely considered to
rival his contemporary, William Faulkner—who believed Wolfe to be
one of the greatest talents of their generation. His novels—
including Look Homeward, Angel (1929); Of Time and the
River (1935); and the posthumously published The Web and the
Rock (1939) and You Can’t Go Home Again (1940)—remain
touchstones of U.S. literature.
In Look Abroad, Angel, Jedidiah Evans uncovers the “global
Wolfe,” reconfiguring Wolfe’s supposedly intractable homesickness
for the American South as a form of longing that is instead
indeterminate and expansive. Instead of promoting and reinforcing a
narrow and cloistered formulation of the writer as merely southern
or Appalachian, Evans places Wolfe in transnational contexts,
examining Wolfe’s impact and influence throughout Europe. In doing
so, he de-territorializes the response to Wolfe’s work, revealing
the writer as a fundamentally global presence within American
literature.
RELATED TITLES
