Art of Looking Back
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€44.99
20th century US literature
A01=Maggie McKinley
American myths
Author_Maggie McKinley
California
Category=DS
Category=JBSF1
Category=JP
contemporary culture
Democracy
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
forthcoming
grief
John Wayne
mourning
mythmaking
national politics
New Journalism
reflective nostalgia
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Svetlana Boym
White Album
Product details
- ISBN 9780807186091
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 11 May 2026
- Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In The Art of Looking Back, Maggie McKinley evaluates the complex nature of nostalgia in the canon of Joan Didion, a theme that has often been taken for granted, oversimplified, and misunderstood. In reassessing this fraught concept, McKinley emphasizes the productive rather than regressive or escapist qualities of nostalgia in Didion's work, highlighting its role as a critical tool used to dissect cultural myths and understand individual identity. McKinley's contextualized analysis offers a nuanced understanding of Didion's views of American history, national rhetoric, hubris, gender politics, grief and loss, and more, underscoring why Didion's writing remains deeply relevant as a cultural touchstone in the twenty-first century.
Maggie McKinley is professor of English at Harper College. She is the author of Understanding Norman Mailer and Masculinity and the Paradox of Violence in American Fiction, 1950–75, and the editor of Norman Mailer in Context and Philip Roth in Context.
