American Perspective; The Hero as a Warrior: John Hornw Burns : The Hero as a Warrior: Norman Mailer
Description:
Episode 17: "In the last of his four discussions of the warrior hero, Dr. Wilson concentrates on John Horne Burns' The Gallery, a series of sketches of Americans and Italians in Naples in 1944. While there is no connecting plot, each vignette serves to illustrate some part of the same theme - "war is hell" and destroys all who come in contact with it. War is poison, destroying even the so-called heroes by attacking the structure of the ideals which they have built to comfort themselves." Episode 16: Dr. Wilson turns to one of the most controversial American authors writing today - Norman Mailer. He comments on Mailer's great novel of World War II, The Naked and the Dead, and on his less popular The Deer Park, to discover what Mailer's conception of the hero is. He shows how similar Mailer is to James Fenimore Cooper, but points out the difficulties facing the hero who wants to maintain his individuality while remaining within society. This is the real problem with which each hero, each serious author, and each serious person must deal, declares Dr. Wilson as the program ends. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) In nineteen half-hour episodes, Graham C. Wilson presents a lively and at times controversial discussion of some the problems with which American literature has tried to deal. Among these, the two most important are our relations with foreign countries - chiefly European - and our definition of the American hero. If we understand these problems and their presentation in our literature, we will have made great progress in understanding ourselves, Dr. Wilson believes. His informal and witty lectures provide the audience with an unusual introduction to the subject. Graham C. Wilson is a professor of Renaissance literature at the San Jose State College in California. Prior to this series, Dr. Wilson prepared a television series designed to help English teachers present the plays of Shakespeare to their students. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
