Frank Waters: author of vision in the American tradition of Emerson, Melville, and Faulkner

Abstract

This study examines the major fiction of Frank Waters, arguing that he transcends the regional and writes in the same universal vein as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and William Faulkner. The study also demonstrates that Waters addresses the issues that America takes seriously: the environment, the nation's pluralistic culture with its issues of race and gender, and the potential for self actualization. Waters writes about the American Southwest and its crucible of cultures--a microcosm of America--an area and related topics that have heretofore been unrecognized by the literary community. Current critical methodologies and their inclusive goals offer an opportunity for the overdue "discovery" of Frank Waters, a better and more important writer than recognized to date. Chapter 1 discusses the reasons that the literary community tends to overlook Regionalism and argues that such works, in particular those of Waters, have universal application. Chapter 2 analyzes humankind's universal relationship to the land and relates Waters's to Faulkner's and Melville's. Chapter 3 examines Waters's fiction in light of America's multicultural society and shows that Waters's vision extends that of Emerson, Melville, and Faulkner. Chapter 4 compares Waters's idea for intellectual and spiritual actualization to Emerson's philosophy of transcendence. Chapter 5 concludes that Frank Waters writes with a vision and a craft that places him squarely in the American tradition, both old and new.