"New Essays on The Red Badge of Courage"

Author: Mitchell
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: The Red Badge of Courage was published ahead of its time in 1895 and immediately achieved success, making the author a household name overnight. In the introduction to this book, Lee La Mitchell discusses how Stephen Crane broke the old conventions of novels and journalism, creating a unique "fragmented" prose style. Five essays explore different aspects of the novel. The first examines the issue of establishing a realistic text, the second positions the novel as a war story, the third critiques the novel as a reflection of the high tide of military imperialism in the 1880s, the fourth focuses on the shift between the two perspectives of the novel—the heroic perspective and the broader "cosmic" perspective—and the fifth explores the deconstruction of courage/vulnerability in the novel. The article is well-written and easy to understand, representing the best academic standards in recent years.