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Capturing America: Mark Lawson's History of Modern American Literature

Robyn Read

Capturing America: Mark Lawson's History of Modern American Literature: Episode 3: Divided States

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Divided States

Episode 3

Episode 3: Divided States

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Capturing America: Mark Lawson's History of Modern American Literature, Divided StatesSearch BBC

Mark Lawson traces how American writers have explored violent divisions in their society.

Mark Lawson traces how American writers have explored the violent divisions in their society. With Toni Morrison. From February 2010.

Mark Lawson tells the story of how American writing became the literary superpower of the 20th century, telling the nation's stories of money, power, sex, religion and war. 

Each American president ends speeches by asking God to bless 'these United States'. But in a nation born through war - and later almost split by civil conflict - there remain deep divisions of colour and opportunity. Mark Lawson explores the way in which this legacy of division and violence has been explored by the nation's authors. 

He talks to writers including Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, James Ellroy and Walter Mosley and literary critic Professor Harold Bloom, who nominates Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian as the greatest modern American novel because it deals with the violence at the heart of American life.

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Mark Lawson tells the story of the rise of American writing in the 20th century

Mark Lawson tells the story of how American writing became the literary superpower of the 20th century, telling the nation's stories of money, power, sex, religion and war

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