J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

A selective list of online literary criticism for mid-twentieth-century American novelist J.D. Salinger, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars and articles published in peer-reviewed sources


main page | 20th-c literature | mid-century american fiction | about literaryhistory.com


literary criticism

Balbert, Peter. "Configurations of the Ego: Studies of Mailer, Roth, and Salinger." Studies in the Novel 12, 1 (Spring 1980) pp 73-81 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Bidney, Martin. "The Aestheticist Epiphanies of J. D. Salinger: Bright-Hued Circles, Spheres, and Patches; 'Elemental' Joy and Pain." Style 34, 1 (Spring 2000) [questia subscription service, substantial preview].

Bishop, Bonnie. "On Rereading Catcher in the Rye." The English Journal 91, 2 (Nov. 2001) p 105 [free at jstor].

Bloom, Harold, ed. J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (Chelsea House 2000) [complete book at questia subscription service].

Bryan, James. "The Psychological Structure of The Catcher in the Rye." In PMLA 89, 5 (Oct. 1974) pp 1065-74 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Hungerford, Amy. "Lecture 10 - J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey. Video lecture from Yale University on how to read and understand Salinger's Franny and Zooey. Yale Open Courses, ENGL 291, "The American Novel Since 1945."

Kaufman, Anthony. "'Along This Road Goes No One': Salinger's 'Teddy' and the Failure of Love" ["Teddy," from Nine Stories]. Kaufman contends that "Teddy" should be understood as "the story not of a cool and detached mystical prodigy, but of an unloved, frightened 10-year-old." Studies in Short Fiction 35, 2 (Spring 1998) [questia subscription service, substantial preview].

Kubica, Chris and Will Hochman, eds. Letters to J.D. Salinger (U of Wisconsin P 2002). Reviewer Catherine Kunce remarks, "The work contains an undeniable charm. Both provocative and amusing at times, Letters to J.D. Salinger advocates an armchair criticism that strives to bridge the gap between educated readers and seasoned critics. Yet for the scholar struggling to read a library full of essential works, I maintain that this volume can be removed from one's obligatory reading list." Rocky Mountain MLA 28 Oct. 2004.

Locke, Richard. Critical Children: The Use of Childhood in Ten Great Novels (Columbia UP 2011). Includes a chapter on "J.D. Salinger's Saintly Dropout, Holden Caufield." Chapter previews at jstor.

Malcolm, Janet. "Justice to J.D. Salinger." Malcolm defends Salinger's "Franny," "Zooey," and Glass family stories from the barrage of criticism they began to receive in the late 1950s, arguing that "Zooey" is Salinger's masterpiece. New York Review of Books 21 June 2001.

Maynard, Joyce. "An 18-Year-Old Looks Back On Life," New York Times, 23 April 1972. The article that caught Salinger's attention. Also "The Cult of Joyce Maynard," 6 Sept. 1998; The first chapter of Maynard's memoir, At Home in the World. NYTimes archive.

McDuffie, Bradley R.. "For Ernest, with Love and Squalor: The Influence of Ernest Hemingway on J.D. Salinger." The Hemingway Review 30, 2 (Spring 2011) [questia subscription service, substantial preview].

Pattanaik, Dipti R. "'The Holy Refusal': A Vedantic Interpretation of J.D. Salinger's Silence." Pattanaik posits religious reasons for Salinger's refusal to publish and avoidance of public life. MELUS 23, 2 (Summer 1998) pp 113-27 [jstor preview or purchase].

Pinsker, Sanford; and Ann Pinsker. Understanding The Catcher in the Rye: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (Greenwood Press 1999) [complete book at questia subscription service].

Smith, Dominic. "Salinger's Nine Stories: Fifty Years Later." The Antioch Review 61, 4 (Autumn 2003) pp 639-49 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Stoltz, Craig. "J. D. Salinger's Tribute to Whit Burnett." Twentieth Century Literature 27, 4 (Winter 1981) pp 325-30 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Takeuchi, Yasuhiro. "The Burning Carousel and the Carnivalesque: Subversion and Transcendence at the Close of The Catcher in the Rye." In Studies in the Novel 34, 3 (Fall 2002) pp 320-36 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Trowbridge, Clinton W. "The Symbolic Structure of The Catcher in the Rye." In The Sewanee Review 74, 3 (Summer 1966) pp 681-93 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Whitfield, Stephen J. "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye." In The New England Quarterly 70, 4 (Dec. 1997) pp 567-600 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].


main page | 20th-c literature | mid-century american fiction | about literaryhistory.com


1998-2013 by LiteraryHistory.com