New essays examining the interface between 18th- and 20th-century
culture both in Pynchon's novel and in the historical past.
Thomas Pynchon's 1997 novel Mason & Dixon marked a deep shift in
Pynchon's career and in American letters in general. All of Pynchon's
novels had been socially and politically aware, marked by social
criticism and a profound questioning of American values. They have
carried the labels of satire and black humor, and "Pynchonesque" has
come to be associated with erudition, a playful style, anachronisms and
puns -- and an interest in scientific theories, popular culture,
paranoia, and the "military-industrial complex." In short, Pynchon's
novels were the sine qua non of postmodernism; Mason & Dixon went
further, using the same style, wit, and erudition to re-create an 18th
century when "America" was being formed as both place and idea.
Pynchon's focus on the creation of the Mason-Dixon Line and the
governmental and scientific entities responsible for it makes a clearer
statement than any of his previous novels about the slavery and
imperialism at the heart of the Enlightenment, as he levels a dark and
hilarious critique at this America. This volume of new essays studies
the interface between 18th- and 20th-century cultureboth in Pynchon's
novel and in the historical past. It offers fresh thinking about
Pynchon's work, as the contributors take up the linkages between the
18th and 20th centuries in studies that are as concerned with culture as
withthe literary text itself.
Contributors: Mitchum Huehls, Brian Thill, Colin Clarke, Pedro
Garcia-Caro, Dennis Lensing, Justin M. Scott Coe, Ian Copestake, Frank
Palmeri.
Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds is Professor and Chair of the English
Department at SUNY Brockport.
