Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Jason M. Dew: Cold War Reflections in Travels with Charley: Steinbeck's New Americanist Evaluation of Intra-Imperialist America

malaise. Like the New Americanists who were to come after him, Steinbeck rejects the "us'V'them" Cold War binary logic and chooses, instead, to explore other possibilities of comprehension, thereby making him a forerunner to a critical field whose very mission is to introduce new interpretations of literary works in addition to inviting formerly snubbed literary works into the canon. The first "work" that was subjected to re-evaluation for the purpose of questioning all conclusions based exclusively on binary logic, it could even be said, was America, and, by extension, the first New Americanist, John Steinbeck. I feel the need to mention, however, that the intent behind equating Steinbeck to the New Americanists is not to displace the leading figures in that camp, but to suggest a genealogy that includes Steinbeck as a recent ancestor of sorts. The first volley fired at what I have been calling intra-imperialism was not fired by the New Americanists; rather, the dissent as a result of the restrictive binary— the very same that would eventually seep into literary study and become an analytical paradigm

—began to percolate before the unofficial end of the Cold War itself. For Steinbeck whose critical popularity peaked with The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and only temporarily re-surfaced with East of Eden (1952) only to dwindle again until the author's death in 1968, the implications that arrive with the juxtaposition of him to the New Americanists are potentially redemptive. Steinbeck, as evidenced in at least Travels

, was not deserving of the critical dismissal that he got. On the contrary, Steinbeck proved that a man profoundly aware of his own setting sun, so to speak, could offer cultural and national insight as a way to redirect a nation on a path to its own demise in hopes that America will choose to embrace significantly less destructive, less alienating ways to self-legitimate. He laid down this offer in Travels, if only implicitly, as the New Americanists lay down their offer to visit and re-visit literary works themselves validated by "Cold War" interpretations. The choice to accept the offer today, as it was then, however, remains a matter of weighing the costs between what is easier and what is necessary. *** 38