Home Literary Studies 11. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925)
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

11. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925)

  • Antje Kley
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
This chapter is in the book Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Abstract

In a distinctly modernist experimental gesture, Manhattan Transfer breaks with nineteenth-century realist and linear narrative modes. Adopting filmic montage techniques, the novel spatially juxtaposes episodes from different characters’ lives, presenting New York as an animate environment, made up of contingent occurrences, streams of consciousness, fleeting impressions, and cultural signs. More than a setting, the city becomes the primary object of the novel and even an agency constitutive of its inhabitants’ lives. Manhattan Transfer thus questions traditional notions of individual autonomy: in a capitalist environment experienced in fragments, subjectivity is always already informed by conventionalized signs and ritualized forms of interaction. The novel does not present a consistent story and its narrative components do not yield a seamless world. In a newly obscure reading process, readers are prompted to experience modes of perception engendered by the radical changes of the early twentieth century. The textual structures demand that the individual develop cognitive and implicit understandings of the historicity and cultural co-production of their own lives as well as habits of interaction that enable her or him to negotiate the contingencies of modern experience.

Abstract

In a distinctly modernist experimental gesture, Manhattan Transfer breaks with nineteenth-century realist and linear narrative modes. Adopting filmic montage techniques, the novel spatially juxtaposes episodes from different characters’ lives, presenting New York as an animate environment, made up of contingent occurrences, streams of consciousness, fleeting impressions, and cultural signs. More than a setting, the city becomes the primary object of the novel and even an agency constitutive of its inhabitants’ lives. Manhattan Transfer thus questions traditional notions of individual autonomy: in a capitalist environment experienced in fragments, subjectivity is always already informed by conventionalized signs and ritualized forms of interaction. The novel does not present a consistent story and its narrative components do not yield a seamless world. In a newly obscure reading process, readers are prompted to experience modes of perception engendered by the radical changes of the early twentieth century. The textual structures demand that the individual develop cognitive and implicit understandings of the historicity and cultural co-production of their own lives as well as habits of interaction that enable her or him to negotiate the contingencies of modern experience.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Modernism 21
  7. 2. Postmodernism 35
  8. 3. Cultural Diversity 52
  9. 4. Intermediality 68
  10. 5. Inter-American Perspectives 84
  11. 6. The American Novel and the Marketplace 98
  12. 7. Futures of the American Novel 113
  13. Part II. Close Readings
  14. 8. Henry James, The Ambassadors (1903) 131
  15. 9. Willa Cather, My Ántonia (1918) 148
  16. 10. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) 162
  17. 11. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925) 177
  18. 12. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926) 192
  19. 13. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (1936) 206
  20. 14. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (1936) 222
  21. 15. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) 237
  22. 16. Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) 250
  23. 17. Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men (1946) 264
  24. 18. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) 278
  25. 19. Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952) 294
  26. 20. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955) 308
  27. 21. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) 322
  28. 22. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977) 337
  29. 23. Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1984) 351
  30. 24. Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985) 361
  31. 25. Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987) 374
  32. 26. Philip Roth, American Pastoral (1997) 388
  33. 27. Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) 401
  34. 28. Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006) 414
  35. 29. Louise Erdrich, The Round House (2012) 427
  36. Index of Subjects 443
  37. Index of Names 447
  38. List of Contributors 459
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110422429-013

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Modernism 21
  7. 2. Postmodernism 35
  8. 3. Cultural Diversity 52
  9. 4. Intermediality 68
  10. 5. Inter-American Perspectives 84
  11. 6. The American Novel and the Marketplace 98
  12. 7. Futures of the American Novel 113
  13. Part II. Close Readings
  14. 8. Henry James, The Ambassadors (1903) 131
  15. 9. Willa Cather, My Ántonia (1918) 148
  16. 10. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) 162
  17. 11. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925) 177
  18. 12. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926) 192
  19. 13. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (1936) 206
  20. 14. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (1936) 222
  21. 15. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) 237
  22. 16. Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) 250
  23. 17. Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men (1946) 264
  24. 18. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) 278
  25. 19. Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952) 294
  26. 20. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955) 308
  27. 21. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) 322
  28. 22. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977) 337
  29. 23. Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1984) 351
  30. 24. Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985) 361
  31. 25. Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987) 374
  32. 26. Philip Roth, American Pastoral (1997) 388
  33. 27. Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) 401
  34. 28. Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006) 414
  35. 29. Louise Erdrich, The Round House (2012) 427
  36. Index of Subjects 443
  37. Index of Names 447
  38. List of Contributors 459
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 9.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110422429-013/html
Scroll to top button