Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-42938-2 — American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 Edited by Ichiro Takayoshi Frontmatter More Information AMERICAN LITERATURE IN TRANSITION, 1930–1940 American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 gathers together in a single volume preeminent critics and historians to offer an author- itative, analytic, and theoretically advanced account of the Depression era’s key literary events. Many topics of canonical importance, such as protest literature, Hollywood fiction, the culture industry, and popu- lism, receive fresh treatment. The book also covers emerging areas of interest, such as radio drama, bestsellers, religious fiction, interna- tionalism, and middlebrow domestic fiction. Traditionally, scholars have treated each one of these issues in isolation. This volume situates all the significant literary developments of the 1930s within a single and capacious vision that discloses their hidden structural relations – their contradictions, similarities, and reciprocities. This is an excellent resource for undergraduate and graduate students, and for scholars interested in American literary culture of the 1930s. ichiro takayoshi teaches modern American literature and social thought at Tufts University. He is the author of American Writers and the Approach of World War II, 1935–1941: A Literary History (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and editor of American Literature in Transition, 1920–1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2017). He is currently at work on a literary and intellectual history of the interwar decades. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-42938-2 — American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 Edited by Ichiro Takayoshi Frontmatter More Information american literature in transition American Literature in Transition captures the dynamic energies transmitted across the 20th- and 21st-century American literary landscapes. Revisionary and authoritative, the series offers a comprehensive new overview of the established literary landmarks that constitute American literary life. Ambitious in scope and depth, and accommodating new critical perspectives and approaches, this series captures the dynamic energies and ongoing change in 20th- and 21st-century American literature. These are decades of transition, but also periods of epochal upheaval. These decades – the Jazz Age, the Great Depression, the Cold War, the sixties, 9/11 – are turning points of real significance. But in a tumultuous century, these terms can mask deeper structural changes. Each one of these books challenges in different ways the dominant approaches to a period of literature by shifting the focus from what happened to understanding how and why it happened. They elucidate the multifaceted interaction between the social and literary fields and capture that era’s place in the incremental evolution of American literature up to the present moment. Taken together, this series of books constitutes a new kind of literary history in a century of intense cultural and literary creation, a century of liberation and also of immense destruction too. As a revisionary project grounded in pre-existing debates, American Literature in Transition offers an unprecedented analysis of the American literary experience. Books in the Series American Literature in Transition, 1910–1920 edited by mark w. van wienen American Literature in Transition, 1920–1930 edited by ichiro takayoshi American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 edited by ichiro takayoshi American Literature in Transition, 1940–1950 edited by christopher vials American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960 edited by steven belletto American Literature in Transition, 1960–1970 edited by david wyatt American Literature in Transition, 1970–1980 edited by kirk curnutt American Literature in Transition, 1980–1990 edited by d. quentin miller American Literature in Transition, 1990–2000 edited by stephen j. burn American Literature in Transition, 2000–2010 edited by rachel greenwald smith © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-42938-2 — American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 Edited by Ichiro Takayoshi Frontmatter More Information AMERICAN LITERATURE IN TRANSITION, 1930–1940 edited by ICHIRO TAKAYOSHI Tufts University © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-42938-2 — American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 Edited by Ichiro Takayoshi Frontmatter More Information University Printing House, Cambridge cb28bs,UnitedKingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, ny 10006,USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207,Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025,India 79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108429382 doi: 10.1017/9781108563895 ©CambridgeUniversityPress2018 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2018 Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data names: Takayoshi, Ichiro, editor. title: American literature in transition, 1930–1940 / edited by Ichiro Takayoshi. description: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, ny : Cambridge University Press, 2018. | Series: American literature in transition | Includes bibliographical references and index. identifiers: lccn 2018022355 | isbn 9781108429382 (alk. paper) subjects: lcsh: American literature – 20th century – History and criticism. | Literature and society – United States – History – 20th century. classification: lcc ps223 .a44 2018 | ddc 810.9/0052–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022355 isbn 978-1-108-42938-2 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-42938-2 — American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 Edited by Ichiro Takayoshi Frontmatter More Information Contents List of Figures page vii Notes on Contributors viii Chronology xiv Introduction 1 Ichiro Takayoshi part i themes 25 1 The Middle Class 27 Amy L. Blair 2 Romance, Marriage, and Family 42 Jennifer Haytock 3 The Working Class 56 Joseph B. Entin 4 Sympathy and Poverty 75 John Marsh 5 Black Culture at Home and Abroad 95 Etsuko Taketani 6 The Southern Heritage 112 Michael Kreyling 7 The Literature of Social Protest in California 128 David Wrobel 8 Reckoning with Christianity 153 Jason Stevens 9 Diversity and American Letters 177 Yael Schacher v © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-42938-2 — American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 Edited by Ichiro Takayoshi Frontmatter More Information vi Contents 10 This Land Is Your Land 198 Robert B. Westbrook 11 Look at the World! 229 David Ekbladh, Ichiro Takayoshi part ii formats 247 12 Bestsellers 249 David Welky 13 Radio Drama 267 Neil Verma 14 Crime Fiction 285 Charles J. Rzepka 15 Documentary Work 303 Jeff Allred 16 Modernism 321 Milton A. Cohen 17 The American Stage 341 Mark Fearnow part iii institutions 359 18 Federal Writers’ Project 361 Jerrold Hirsch 19 Hollywood 382 William Solomon 20 Time Inc. 403 Donal Harris 21 The Communist Party 421 Christopher Phelps Epilogue: Echoes of the 1930s 436 Morris Dickstein Index 442 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-42938-2 — American Literature in Transition, 1930–1940 Edited by Ichiro Takayoshi Frontmatter More Information Figures 5.1 The Chicago Negro Unit’s The Swing Mikado (1938). page 101 Federal Theatre Project Collection, Library of Congress 10.1 John Steuart Curry, “Tragic Prelude” (1939). Kansas Historical Society 205 10.2 Walker Evans, “Joe’s Auto Graveyard, Pennsylvania, 1936.” The Museum of Modern Art 210 10.3 Walker Evans, “Alabama Tenant Farmer Family Singing Hymns, 1936.” The Museum of Modern Art 210 10.4 Walker Evans, “Main Street, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1931.” The Museum of Modern Art 213 10.5 Walker Evans, “Houses and Billboards in Atlanta, 1936.” The Museum of Modern Art 215 10.6 Walker Evans, “Interior Detail, West Virginia Coal Miner’s House, 1935.” The Museum of Modern Art 221 11.1 Richard Edes Harrison, “The Big Network: How the World Communications System Reaches into the U.S.” (1939). Richard Edes Harrison Collection. Library of Congress 236 15.1 Dorothea Lange, “Indian Woman in a Migratory Labor Contractor’s Camp in California.” Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration, US Department of Agriculture 310 15.2 Jack Delano, “Sharecropper, Georgia.” Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration, US Department of Agriculture 314 15.3 Margaret Bourke-White,