Stanley Elkin (b. May 11, 1930, d. May 31, 1995) profoundly influenced many avant-garde American and European fiction writers through the example he set as a craftsman ferociously dedicated to his art and to his stylistic innovations, through his counsel in university and writers' conference settings, though his radical innovations with the possibilities inherent in language, and through his substantial, varied body of fiction, charting the evolution of American middle-class culture from the Great Depression to the beginning of the 1990s. His novels and novellas are usually organized around the life of a protagonist who is an isolated observer of mainstream American culture, but who seeks integration with that cultural mainstream, or who defies the conventions and mores of that society.…

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Citation: Dougherty, David C.. "Stanley Elkin". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 November 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1412, accessed 09 October 2024.]

1412 Stanley Elkin 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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