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The Resource Imagination and idealism in John Updike's fiction, Michial Farmer

Imagination and idealism in John Updike's fiction, Michial Farmer

Creator
Author
Summary
This book looks past the frequently discussed autobiographical nature of John Updike's fiction to consider the role in Updike's work of the most powerful and peculiar human faculty: the imagination. Michial Farmer argues that, while the imagination is for Updike a means of human survival and a necessary component of human flourishing, it also has a destructive, darker side, in which it shades intosomething like philosophical idealism. Here the mind constructs the world around it and then, unhelpfully, imposes this created world between itself and the "real world." In other words, Updike is not himself an idealist but sees idealism as a persistent temptation for the artistic imagination. Farmer builds his argument on the metaphysics of Jean-Paul Sartre, an existentialist thinker who has been largely neglected in discussions of Updike's aesthetics. The book demonstrates the degree to which Updike was an original and powerful thinker and not the callow sensationalist that he is sometimesaccused of being.<BR><BR> Michial Farmer is Assistant Professor of English at Crown College, Saint Bonifacius, Minnesota.<BR><BR>
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource
Contents
  • Introduction: Hawthorne, Updike, and the immoral immagination
  • John Updike and the existentialist imagination
  • Part I. The "mythic immensity" of the parental imagination
  • "Flight," "His mother inside him," and "Ace in the hole"
  • The centaur
  • Of the farm, "A sandstone farmhouse," and "The cats"
  • Part II. Collective hallucination in the adulterous society
  • "Man and daughter in the cold," "Giving blood," "The taste of metal," and "Avec la bébé-sitter"
  • Part III. Imaginative lust in the Scarlett letter trilogy
  • "The football factory," "Toward evening," "Incest," "Still life," "Lifeguard," "Bech swings?" and "Three illuminations in the life of an American author"
  • A mouth of Sunday
  • Roger's version
  • S.
  • Part IV. Female power and the female imagination
  • "Marching through Boston," "The stare," "Report of health," "Living with a wife," and "Slippage"
  • The witches of eastwick
  • Part V. The remembering imagination
  • "In football season," "First wives and trolley cars," "The day of the dying rabbit," "Leaving church early," and "The egg race"
  • Memories of the Ford administration
  • "The dogwood tree," "A soft spring night in Shillington," and "On being a self forever"
  • Conclusion: Updike, realism, and postmodernism
Isbn
9781782049357
Instance
Label
Imagination and idealism in John Updike's fiction
Title
Imagination and idealism in John Updike's fiction
Statement of responsibility
Michial Farmer
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
This book looks past the frequently discussed autobiographical nature of John Updike's fiction to consider the role in Updike's work of the most powerful and peculiar human faculty: the imagination. Michial Farmer argues that, while the imagination is for Updike a means of human survival and a necessary component of human flourishing, it also has a destructive, darker side, in which it shades intosomething like philosophical idealism. Here the mind constructs the world around it and then, unhelpfully, imposes this created world between itself and the "real world." In other words, Updike is not himself an idealist but sees idealism as a persistent temptation for the artistic imagination. Farmer builds his argument on the metaphysics of Jean-Paul Sartre, an existentialist thinker who has been largely neglected in discussions of Updike's aesthetics. The book demonstrates the degree to which Updike was an original and powerful thinker and not the callow sensationalist that he is sometimesaccused of being.<BR><BR> Michial Farmer is Assistant Professor of English at Crown College, Saint Bonifacius, Minnesota.<BR><BR>
Member of
Cataloging source
N$T
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1982-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Farmer, Michial
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
Series statement
Mind and American literature
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Updike, John
  • Updike, John
  • Imagination in literature
  • Idealism in literature
  • LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General
  • PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Humanism
  • Idealism in literature
  • Imagination in literature
Label
Imagination and idealism in John Updike's fiction, Michial Farmer
Instantiates
Publication
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction: Hawthorne, Updike, and the immoral immagination -- John Updike and the existentialist imagination -- Part I. The "mythic immensity" of the parental imagination -- "Flight," "His mother inside him," and "Ace in the hole" -- The centaur -- Of the farm, "A sandstone farmhouse," and "The cats" -- Part II. Collective hallucination in the adulterous society -- "Man and daughter in the cold," "Giving blood," "The taste of metal," and "Avec la bébé-sitter" -- Part III. Imaginative lust in the Scarlett letter trilogy -- "The football factory," "Toward evening," "Incest," "Still life," "Lifeguard," "Bech swings?" and "Three illuminations in the life of an American author" -- A mouth of Sunday -- Roger's version -- S. -- Part IV. Female power and the female imagination -- "Marching through Boston," "The stare," "Report of health," "Living with a wife," and "Slippage" -- The witches of eastwick -- Part V. The remembering imagination -- "In football season," "First wives and trolley cars," "The day of the dying rabbit," "Leaving church early," and "The egg race" -- Memories of the Ford administration -- "The dogwood tree," "A soft spring night in Shillington," and "On being a self forever" -- Conclusion: Updike, realism, and postmodernism
Control code
ocn974947684
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781782049357
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Note
JSTOR
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
22573/ctt1kxwhp4
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)974947684
Label
Imagination and idealism in John Updike's fiction, Michial Farmer
Publication
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction: Hawthorne, Updike, and the immoral immagination -- John Updike and the existentialist imagination -- Part I. The "mythic immensity" of the parental imagination -- "Flight," "His mother inside him," and "Ace in the hole" -- The centaur -- Of the farm, "A sandstone farmhouse," and "The cats" -- Part II. Collective hallucination in the adulterous society -- "Man and daughter in the cold," "Giving blood," "The taste of metal," and "Avec la bébé-sitter" -- Part III. Imaginative lust in the Scarlett letter trilogy -- "The football factory," "Toward evening," "Incest," "Still life," "Lifeguard," "Bech swings?" and "Three illuminations in the life of an American author" -- A mouth of Sunday -- Roger's version -- S. -- Part IV. Female power and the female imagination -- "Marching through Boston," "The stare," "Report of health," "Living with a wife," and "Slippage" -- The witches of eastwick -- Part V. The remembering imagination -- "In football season," "First wives and trolley cars," "The day of the dying rabbit," "Leaving church early," and "The egg race" -- Memories of the Ford administration -- "The dogwood tree," "A soft spring night in Shillington," and "On being a self forever" -- Conclusion: Updike, realism, and postmodernism
Control code
ocn974947684
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781782049357
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Note
JSTOR
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
22573/ctt1kxwhp4
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)974947684

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