Stephen Dixon was an American writer of prose fiction. He belongs to the generation of American writers known broadly as Post-Modernists, who were born in the 1930s and emerged in the 1960s: Kurt Vonnegut and William Gass (both born in 1922); Donald Barthelme, Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and E.L. Doctorow. Generally speaking, this group of writers sought an alternative to the ironic realism of the 1940s and 1950s. They sought narrative methods that such as allegory and science fiction that would convey their horror at the social conditions, especially the growing militarization the United States.

At the same time, the post-modern writers tried to reduce the presence of the narrator in order to keep the reader from identifying with the characters. The effect is similar to that of Berthold

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Citation: Hendricks, Ted. "Stephen Dixon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 January 2015; last revised 17 February 2020. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13361, accessed 24 November 2024.]