Technique and Sensibility in the Fiction and Poetry of Raymond Carver

Emphasizing important techniques and themes, with due consideration of germane theoretical perspectives and relevant biographical materials, this study offers the most comprehensive, sophisticated examination of Raymond Carvers fiction and poetry to date. Key arguments include a de-emphasis of indeterminacy in Carvers fiction; a detailed unfolding of his brilliant technique, especially his use of unreliable narration, symbolism, and omission; a rejection of the notion of Carver as catatonic realist, a reductive view ignoring the poignancy of his fiction; and a consideration of Carvers authorial control of his characters. Most importantly, this study provides the first readily available, detailed, thoughtful analysis of Carvers poetry, arguing for an inclusion of Carver into the canon of postmodern American poets.
Written in straightforward, clear prose, the in-depth readings will help undergraduates immeasurably, while connections of Carvers work to that of other modern and contemporary writers, to carver scholarship, and theories of minimalism, postmodernism, and realism, will interest and assist more advanced readers. A thorough, current bibliography including references to doctoral dissertations and many MA theses is included. Professor William Cain, the editor of Routledges Studies in Major Literary Authors series, states confidently that Technique and Sensibility in the Fiction and Poetry or Raymond Carver "Will become the main book" in Carver scholarship, "the book that everyone else will turn to and be obliged to reckon with."