George Saunders Critical Essays [Hardcover]

This timely volume explores the signal contribution George Saunders has made to the development of the short story form in books ranging from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) to Tenth of December (2013). The book brings together a team of scholars from around the world to explore topics ranging from Saunderss treatment of work and religion to biopolitics and the limits of the short story form. It also includes an interview with Saunders specially conducted for the volume, and a preliminary bibliography of his published works and critical responses to an expanding and always exciting creative Suvre. Coinciding with the release of the Saunders first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), George Saunders: Critical Essays is the first book-length consideration of a major contemporary authors work. It is essential reading for anyone interested in twenty-first century fiction..- 1 A Job to Do : George Saunders on, and at, Work.- 2 Horning In: Language, Subordination and Freedom in the Short Fiction of George Saunders.- 3 Language Between Lyricism and Corporatism: George Saunderss New Sincerity.- 4 Hope that, in future, all is well: American Exceptionalism and Hopes for Resistance in Two Stories by George Saunders.- 5 Hanging by a Thread in the Homeland: The Four Institutional Monologues of George Saunders.- 6 Biopolitical Dystopias, Bureaucratic Carnivores, Synthetic Primitives: Pastoralia as Human Zoo.- 7 Ghosts and Theme Parks: The Supernatural and the Artificial in George Saunderss Short Stories.- 8 The Absent Presence of the Deus Absconditus in the Work of George Saunders.- 9 Narrative Empathy in George Saunderss Short Fiction.- 10 Cruel Inventions: George Saunderss Literary Darkenfloxx .- 11 Dreaming and Realizing The Semplica Girl Diaries: A Post-Jungian Readingl*