Hicks argues convincingly that current American fiction mirrors the cultural fragmentation that has occurred in America since World War II. He proposes that realism is no longer the dominant mode, that the modern American writers he discusses have abandoned public experience and social realism for intensely personal experiences and literary modes of black humor, fable romance, and allegory. This inward retreat to literary subcultures reflects the breakdown of mainstream American culture.

Originally published in 1981.

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