An American Dream

The Singular Nightmare

Authors

  • Donald L. Kaufmann University of South Florida Author

Keywords:

An American Dream, American Dream myth, violence and mortality, dream and nightmare, novel of manners, existentialism, American culture

Abstract

Mailer’s fourth novel can be read as sardonic social criticism and a dramatic critique on those nuances underlining the ambiguous values in contemporary America, on those individual roots of American aspirations and ideals. For Mailer, the collective ideal is a civilized composite of everyone’s primitive desires.

Author Biography

  • Donald L. Kaufmann, University of South Florida

    Donald L. Kaufmann is Professor of English at the University of South Florida, where he has taught American literature and creative writing since coming to USF from the University of Alaska in 1965. He is the author of Norman Mailer: The Countdown: The First Twenty Years (Southern Illinois University Press, 1969), one of the first two books to appear on the work of Norman Mailer. He has also published essays on Mailer, Updike, Bellow, Hemingway, and other twentieth-century American writers. Professor Kaufmann holds one of the largest Mailer collections of books, stories, essays, memorabilia, and ephemerals.

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Published

2026-01-25

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2007): Inaugural Issue

Section

Classic Interpretations