U.S.A. and the Practice of the Collective Novel - John Dos Passos" Impersonal and Objective Trilogy

U.S.A. and the Practice of the Collective Novel

&nbsp;&nbsp;The themes and subjects of John Dos Passos&quot; novels evolved from those of the conventional, romantic and individual to more impersonal, objective, and collective themes and subjects. The literary evolution culminated in the creation of U.S.A. trilogy, Dos Passos&quot; magnum opus. With its trilogy&quot;s textual architectonic, which employs a variety of the artistic styles and devices, the trilogy successfully portrays totalistic dimensions of American society during the first three decades of the twentieth century. For the project of writing U.S.A., Dos Passos relies on one of the fictional forms of radical modernism, that is, the collective novel. Dos Passos deliberately resuscitates the practices and conventions of the collective novel in order to accomplish the daunting task, the portrayal of an impersonal, objective, and collective being, modern American society as a whole. Therefore, after discussing briefly Dos Passos&quot; literary development from romantic individualism to impersonal and objective collectivism, this essay will inquire into the aesthetic relationship between U.S.A. and the collective novel.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The collective novel as one of the four modes of proletarian fiction has three unique features. First, the novel presents a group of individual characters who are not just simply a sum of individuals but represent a certain kind of unity such as social class and nationality. Secondly, the collective novel does not hesitate to employ the experimental techniques and the innovative forms that break up conventional narrative structure and shatter the illusion of textual transparency. The final feature of the collective novel is that it uses “direct documentary links" with the outside world. As its three subtitles indicates, U.S.A. incorporates an impersonal, objective, and collective being into its text. Portraying one nation as a whole is not an easy task. However, with its deliberate use of the practices and conventions of the collective novel, U.S.A. has accomplished the task, which should be remembered as a landmark in the history of American literature.