The Evolving American Landscape in Edgar Lee Masters's [Sic] Spoon River Anthology
Since its original reception, literary critics have relegated Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology to "revolt from the village" literature causing the deeper cconcerns that Masters addressed in the Anthology to be overlooked, or dismissed. These concerns center on variations of two myths that have powerfully shaped American society: the Garden and the Wasteland. A careful reading on the Spoon River Anthology informed by secondary texts on Masters' writing and others that discuss the mythic underpinnings of American society shows that Masters achieves a complex portayal of American culture as the nation entered the modern industrial era.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations