John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel

Ian Afflerbach (University of North Georgia)

Ed. by Christopher Hugh Gair, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1930

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

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John Dos Passos’

The 42nd Parallel

was first published in 1930, and in 1938 was released with

1919

and

The Big Money

as the complete

U.S.A.

trilogy. The first volume opens at the dawn of a new century, and introduces both the formal divisions—Newsreel, Camera Eye, biographies, and narratives—as well as many of the characters that reappear throughout all three sections of this monumental work of American modernism.

Lacking a true protagonist, The 42nd Parallel tracks the struggles and successes of its five principle characters across an enormous geographic landscape, from the bustling urban space of New York and Chicago, past glimpses at the life of migrant labor in Middle America, to the tumultuous politics of México City. According to Michael Denning, the title refers to “an 1865

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2280 words

Citation: Afflerbach, Ian. "The 42nd Parallel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 December 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1665, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel

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