Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Introduction: The Novel and the Symbolic 1
5. Part I Knowing
6. 1 Guilty Reading: Stupidity and Sex in Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie 19
7. 2 Ultimate Delicacy: Propriety and False Femininity in Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House 41
8. Part II Seeing
9. 3 Counting as Decent: Obscenity and Masculinity in William Faulkner’s Sanctuary 67
10. 4 A Gulf of Silence: Richard Wright’s Native Son and Obscenity’s Racial Demand 91
11. Appendix: Legal Cases Cited 113
12. Notes 115
13. Works Cited 149
14. Index 161