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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Between the Mountains and the Sea: Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer Novels

Grogg, Samuel L., Jr.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566297702058772

Abstract Details

1974, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, English.
Ross Macdonald has stated that his primary goal in writing is to capture the sense of contemporary life. He goes on to point out that the detective form has been most useful for accomplishing this goal. This study examines Macdonald's use of the popular detective form, and defines how he has made it a singularly appropriate form in which to represent the "sense" of physical and mental life in America's present. The study traces the early development of the detective form and its ability to mirror cultural attitudes and values, defines Macdonald's narrator-hero Lew Archer in reference to his predecessors and to his own peculiar characterization, and discusses the major themes and subjects of the Archer novels. Macdonald's repeated insistence on the recognition of moral and physical limits, the continuity of time, and the idea of "wholeness" in everything is the major thrust of the entire Lew Archer series. The study concludes that Macdonald, in the Lew Archer novels, has provided an accurate reflection of America in a time of cultural transition from an agrarian dream to an urban nightmare and beyond.
Ray B. Browne (Advisor)
American Literature

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Grogg, Jr., S. L. (1974). Between the Mountains and the Sea: Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer Novels [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566297702058772

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Grogg, Jr., Samuel. Between the Mountains and the Sea: Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer Novels. 1974. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566297702058772.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Grogg, Jr., Samuel. "Between the Mountains and the Sea: Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer Novels." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1974. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566297702058772

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1566297702058772
535
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