Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead

Martin Kich (Wright State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1948

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Originally published in 1948, when Mailer was only twenty-five years old,

The Naked and the Dead

was immediately hailed as a major novel about the American experience in the Second World War. In the subsequent half century, the novel has retained that standing. Indeed, despite Mailer’s attempts to replicate its success in a series of “big” novels,

The Naked and the Dead

has remained, in the view of many critics, his most important and most fully realized novel.

The novel is set on the fictional island of Anopopei in the South Pacific. An American force is attempting to dislodge the Japanese from the island, but the American effort quickly bogs down. The novel focuses on Lieutenant Robert Hearn, an aide to General Edward Cummings, the commander of the U.S. forces. Hearn comes

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919 words

Citation: Kich, Martin. "The Naked and the Dead". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 May 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=120, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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