Publication date:
29 July 2014Length of book:
426 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9780810891999
The importance of New Orleans 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 New Orleans-centered fiction are available, they are of little use to scholars researching works written before the 1980s.
In The New Orleans of Fiction: A Research Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 500 works of fiction significantly set in New Orleans and published between 1836 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.
In The New Orleans of Fiction: A Research Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 500 works of fiction significantly set in New Orleans and published between 1836 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.
Kaser notes in his introduction that choosing titles and authors for this guide was anything but an exact science. His goal was to offer a research guide that includes fiction titles in which the city of New Orleans has a 'strong symbolic role throughout.' Titles included in the 'Annotated Bibliography,' this guide’s largest section, must have been printed between 1828 and 1980. Each entry contains bibliographic information and a detailed synopsis of the book’s themes and their relation to New Orleans. . . .Writer biographies make up the second and perhaps most interesting section of this guide. Readers will find Kaser’s well-written biographies filled with information about long-forgotten but venerable authors. The third section comprises two appendixes. The first includes bibliographic information on titles published after 1980. The second contains a list of included texts in chronological order. Completing a project of this size and scope is an admirable undertaking, and Kaser manages to make this guide readable and informative. Researchers interested in how fiction authors portray New Orleans will find this research guide a valuable resource. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.