3 Review(s)

Since literature is a mirror of society, it is directly or indirectly engaged with contemporary social, political and economic realities. Alienation is a theme that finds its expression in works of literature since time immemorial. In the 21st century, the theme acquires a greater relevance due to various factors that impact human life and lead to crises in an individual. Hence this study has been undertaken to study the concept of alienation as developed by Melvin Seamen. The book focuses how alienation shapes the life and destiny of an individual and how the individual faces and resolves/reconciles himself/herself to his/her predicament. The present book “Re-interpreting Alienation in Modern American Literature” is a re-production of my thesis “Exploring Alienation in the Select Works of Salinger, Lee, Lerner and Saunders”. The research analyzed the following works: The Cathcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951), To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee (1960), Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner (2011) and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (2017). The novels selected for this research have been published in the 1950s and after.