Norman Mailer’s Mythmaking in An American Dream and “The White Negro”

Authors

  • Martjin Sermeus Author

Keywords:

An American Dream, "The White Negro", American Dream myth, mythmaking and national identity, heroic quest and archetype, violence and regeneration, individuality and rebellion

Abstract

Mailer is very concerned with the American “identity,” not just with the shape and soul of the country as a whole, but also with the individual identity of “the” American as he searches for the characteristics essential to the “real” American identity.

Author Biography

  • Martjin Sermeus

    Martjin Sermeus received his MA in Western Literature only last year from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He is currently teaching English and Dutch in a secondary school near Brussels, hoping to make his students connect with American literature. After being suggested An American Dream by his professor of American Literature, Martjin fell in love with the writing of Norman Mailer. As a result, he decided not only to write his thesis for his Bachelor degree, but also his Master’s Thesis on the subject of Norman Mailer’s position as a novelist, essayist, journalist and political activist in the tumultuous Sixties. He became, and still is, an avid admirer of Mailer’s work.

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Published

2026-06-16

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2011): Norris Mailer: A Life in Words

Section

Articles