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The Chicago of Fiction. A Resource Guide.
James A. Kaser
€ 181.88
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Description for The Chicago of Fiction. A Resource Guide.
Hardback. Num Pages: 672 pages. BIC Classification: 1KBB; 2AB; DSK; DSR. Category: (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 268 x 188 x 41. Weight in Grams: 1366.
The importance of Chicago in American culture has made the city's place in the American imagination a crucial topic for literary scholars and cultural historians. While databases of bibliographical information on Chicago-centered fiction are available, they are of little use to scholars researching works written before the 1980s. In The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 1,200 works of fiction significantly set in Chicago and published between 1852 and 1980. The synopses include plot summaries, names of major characters, and an indication of physical settings. An appendix provides bibliographical information for works dating from 1981 well into the 21st century, while a biographical section provides basic information about the authors, some of whom are obscure and would be difficult to find in other sources. Written to assist researchers in locating works of fiction for analysis, the plot summaries highlight ways in which the works touch on major aspects of social history and cultural studies (i.e., class, ethnicity, gender, immigrant experience, and race). The book is also a useful reader advisory tool for librarians and readers who want to identify materials for leisure reading, particularly since genre, juvenile, and young adult fiction, as well as literary fiction, are included.
Product Details
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2011
Publisher
Scarecrow Press United States
Number of pages
672
Condition
New
Number of Pages
672
Place of Publication
Lanham, MD, United States
ISBN
9780810877245
SKU
V9780810877245
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-15
About James A. Kaser
James A. Kaser is professor and archivist at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York. He is the author of The Washington, D.C. of Fiction: A Research Guide (Scarecrow, 2006).
Reviews for The Chicago of Fiction. A Resource Guide.
Kaser (College of Staten Island, CUNY; The Washington, D.C. of Fiction: A Research Guide, 2006), a specialist in American cultural studies, has done a masterful job of locating and arranging fictional works primarily set in Chicago. Kaser states that his task was made more difficult because catalogers did not ordinarily provide subject designations in this genre before 1980. Cataloging rules changed by 2000 to allow geographic and subject designators for fiction, permitting greater ease in finding such works through keyword-searchable Web-based tools. The bulk of this book consists of an annotated bibliography of novels and collections of short stories (but not dramatic works) published between 1852 and 1980. To offer a more comprehensive source book, Kaser supplements these one-paragraph entries with a designated appendix A, a register of unannotated works whose first editions appeared between 1980 and 2008. Appendix B groups citations for pre-1980 fiction chronologically; readers can use these to find the explanatory notes for works in similar time periods in the alphabetically arranged major portion of the anthology. A general subject index and list of brief biographies, with each entry's own sources, of all the writers on whom some information is available, makes this work easy to read and a pleasure to peruse. The Chicago of Fiction is a boon for writers on the Windy City seeking textual information to portray a mood in their own fictional works; and for the many mavens of Chicago culture, who will appreciate discovering quirky, little-known fictional accounts inspired by a city of significance with often symbolic connotations. Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.
CHOICE
A valuable resource, and a particularly rich one for scholars of American naturalism, given the sheer number of works indexed from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Studies in American Naturalism
The 2,223 total entries vary on how much they focus on Chicago, but the extensive index greatly enables researchers by listing entries by number code under various subjects ranging from Abortion and Academics to Youth Culture and Xenophobia. In addition there are chronological lists by decades from the 1830 to the 1970s. This makes the source useful not only for those interested in Chicago primarily, but also in broader topics where the city plays only a partial role.
American Reference Books Annual
CHOICE
A valuable resource, and a particularly rich one for scholars of American naturalism, given the sheer number of works indexed from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Studies in American Naturalism
The 2,223 total entries vary on how much they focus on Chicago, but the extensive index greatly enables researchers by listing entries by number code under various subjects ranging from Abortion and Academics to Youth Culture and Xenophobia. In addition there are chronological lists by decades from the 1830 to the 1970s. This makes the source useful not only for those interested in Chicago primarily, but also in broader topics where the city plays only a partial role.
American Reference Books Annual