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oapen-20.500.12657-325622021-03-24T19:58:46Z Off-Canon pleasures - a case study and a perspective Frank, Armin Paul, American Studies Bombing of Guernica Condor Legion Mr. Kaplan bic Book Industry Communication::C Language bic Book Industry Communication::D Literature & literary studies bic Book Industry Communication::D Literature & literary studies::DS Literature: history & criticism::DSG Literary studies: plays & playwrights bic Book Industry Communication::D Literature & literary studies::DS Literature: history & criticism::DSK Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers bic Book Industry Communication::F Fiction & related items::FC Classic fiction (pre c 1945) The inclusion of works in a canonical list creates a large body of exclusions. But among these neglected works there are not a few that nevertheless are worth reading. Literary worth is not necessarily aesthetic impeccability. A literary work recommends itself by a high degree of artistic achievement with elbowroom for historical importance. The present study focuses on Leo Rosten’s immigration novel The Education of Hyman Kaplan (1937) and Archibald MacLeish’s radio play Air Raid (1938). The first is more than the apparent compendium of language-based jokes. Read in the context of immigration policy from Presidents Theodore Roosevelt to F. D. Roosevelt and of Jewish-American humor, it displays Kaplan’s moral and intellectual growth, which extant commentary denies, and exhibits the “interior internationality” of an immigration country. Air Raid is one of the few achieved American radio plays to take a stand on foreign affairs in a context that does not only consist of broadcasting and Picasso’s collage-painting Guernica – the “screaming picture” which MacLeish transposed into the acoustic medium – but also of the historical saturation bombing of the Basque town. The inclusion of works in a canonical list creates a large body of exclusions. But among these neglected works there are not a few that nevertheless are worth reading. Literary worth is not necessarily aesthetic impeccability. A literary work recommends itself by a high degree of artistic achievement with elbowroom for historical importance. The present study focuses on Leo Rosten’s immigration novel The Education of Hyman Kaplan (1937) and Archibald MacLeish’s radio play Air Raid (1938). The first is more than the apparent compendium of language-based jokes. Read in the context of immigration policy from Presidents Theodore Roosevelt to F. D. Roosevelt and of Jewish-American humor, it displays Kaplan’s moral and intellectual growth, which extant commentary denies, and exhibits the “interior internationality” of an immigration country. Air Raid is one of the few achieved American radio plays to take a stand on foreign affairs in a context that does not only consist of broadcasting and Picasso’s collage-painting Guernica – the “screaming picture” which MacLeish transposed into the acoustic medium – but also of the historical saturation bombing of the Basque town. 2016-12-31 23:55:55 2019-11-27 16:06:33 2020-04-01T14:13:54Z 2020-04-01T14:13:54Z 2011 book 610288 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/32562 eng application/pdf n/a 610288.pdf https://doi.org/10.17875/gup2011-400 Universitätsverlag Göttingen 10.17875/gup2011-400 The inclusion of works in a canonical list creates a large body of exclusions. But among these neglected works there are not a few that nevertheless are worth reading. Literary worth is not necessarily aesthetic impeccability. A literary work recommends itself by a high degree of artistic achievement with elbowroom for historical importance. The present study focuses on Leo Rosten’s immigration novel The Education of Hyman Kaplan (1937) and Archibald MacLeish’s radio play Air Raid (1938). The first is more than the apparent compendium of language-based jokes. Read in the context of immigration policy from Presidents Theodore Roosevelt to F. D. Roosevelt and of Jewish-American humor, it displays Kaplan’s moral and intellectual growth, which extant commentary denies, and exhibits the “interior internationality” of an immigration country. Air Raid is one of the few achieved American radio plays to take a stand on foreign affairs in a context that does not only consist of broadcasting and Picasso’s collage-painting Guernica – the “screaming picture” which MacLeish transposed into the acoustic medium – but also of the historical saturation bombing of the Basque town. 10.17875/gup2011-400 ffaff15c-73ed-45cd-8be1-56a881b51f62 open access
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