John Updike and the Grandeur of American Suburban Life

Abstract

The standing of John Updike (1932-2009), a multiple prize-winning author of more than 60 books, has suffered over the last two decades. Updike's great subject was ordinary middle class America. He strove to illuminate the truths of small town America, to reveal the beauty in its ordinariness. Updike captures the texture of ordinary American life and the way sex and religion frame modern American existence, and the path of America itself, from the cozy Eisenhower era to the uncertainties and exhaustion of the early 21st century. Updike mission was to articulate something serious and empowering to the ordinary reader - the truths and texture of America itself.



Author Information
Oliver Hadingham, Rikkyo University, Japan

Paper Information
Conference: LibrAsia2016
Stream: Literature - Anglo-American Literature

This paper is part of the LibrAsia2016 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon