9 - Old Themes, New Discoveries (2000–2010)

Summary

IN HER INTRODUCTION TO Hemingway: Eight Decades of Criticism Linda Wagner-Martin (2009) calls the twenty-first century “the century of the blend,” with “many strands of theoretical readings coalesc[ing] to provide an enriched view of the way critique can enhance both reading and textual work” (xv). Wagner-Martin is right in more ways than one about the blending that took place during this decade. While interrogations of Hemingway texts using new critical methodologies and exploring issues of contemporary interest dominated scholars’ attention, more traditional assessments of topics such as the Hemingway code and the Hemingway style continued to appear. The breadth of interest in Hemingway's work can best be illustrated by examining criticism published during the decade by genre or topic rather than strictly chronologically.

Handbooks and Essay Collections

A sure sign of the strength of Hemingway studies is the ongoing initiative by both academic and popular publishers to bring out handbooks and essay collections, the latter frequently filled with previously published materials. In Wagner-Martin's (2000) Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway a brief biographical essay by Michael Reynolds headed a list of contributions that examine themes from a historical perspective. Wagner-Martin's note on influence suggested how literature as well as life provided inspiration for Hemingway. By contrast, the handbook produced by Reynolds (2000), Ernest Hemingway, in Gale's Literary Masters series, has a wider focus; it was intended to introduce Hemingway to a new generation of readers. Reynolds brought together comments from a number of critics whose work influenced Hemingway studies during the twentieth century. Published at the end of the decade, classic and contemporary essays in Eugene Goodheart's (2010) Critical Insights: Ernest Hemingway provided a sense of how criticism has shaped views about Hemingway and his work. One comes away from reading the book cover to cover with the sense that it is impossible to separate the writer from his fiction, and the man of action from the writer.

A number of new handbooks were devoted to analyzing a single book. Certainly the most ambitious was the two-volume Comprehensive Companion to Hemingway's “A Moveable Feast”: Annotation to Interpretation.