Look Abroad, Angel

Thomas Wolfe and the Geographies of Longing

Title Details

Pages: 252

Illustrations: 6 b&w images

Trim size: 6.000in x 9.000in

Formats

Hardcover

Pub Date: 02/01/2020

ISBN: 9-780-8203-5646-4

List Price: $57.95

Look Abroad, Angel

Thomas Wolfe and the Geographies of Longing

Exploring the global reach and influence of a major American writer

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  • Description

Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) was one of the most influential southern writers, widely considered to rival his contemporary, William Faulkner—who believed Wolfe to be one of the greatest talents of their generation. His novels— including Look Homeward, Angel (1929); Of Time and the River (1935); and the posthumously published The Web and the Rock (1939) and You Can’t Go Home Again (1940)—remain touchstones of U.S. literature.

In Look Abroad, Angel, Jedidiah Evans uncovers the “global Wolfe,” reconfiguring Wolfe’s supposedly intractable homesickness for the American South as a form of longing that is instead indeterminate and expansive. Instead of promoting and reinforcing a narrow and cloistered formulation of the writer as merely southern or Appalachian, Evans places Wolfe in transnational contexts, examining Wolfe’s impact and influence throughout Europe. In doing so, he de-territorializes the response to Wolfe’s work, revealing the writer as a fundamentally global presence within American literature.

About the Author/Editor

JEDIDIAH EVANS is an associate lecturer in writing studies at the University of Sydney.