It is about the lands in the western hemisphere and the people there—indigenous as well as immigrants. It is about political jingoism, literary piracy, revolution and rationality. It is about enlightenment, neoclassicism, romanticism and transcendentalism. It is about women's rights and black slavery. It is about civil war, industrialization and Great Depression. It is about frontier humor and muckraking. It is about Amerindians and African-Americans. It is about American theater and hip-hop poetry. It is about Hollywood and Wild West. It is about McCarthyism and 9/11. It is about the great American Tragedy and the great American Dream.

The IUP Journal of American Literature is all about these and much more. With informative, incisive and interesting articles, the journal seeks to acquaint a broad spectrum of students, scholars, teachers, writers and common readers with the best of discussions, studies, criticisms and analyses on anything and everything that is American Literature. If the readers find the journal a useful source of edifying as well as exciting views, an inspiration for further reading and research, and a vibrant forum for dissemination of knowledge, our aim in bringing out this journal will be more than served.

The Grapes of Wrath needs no introduction. In the first article, "Strategies for Survival: An Approach to Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath," the author, S S Prabhakar Rao, takes a perceptive look at Steinbeck's landmark novel and draws our attention to certain strategies adopted by the migrant workers in their struggle for wages, justice and dignity, such as feeling of oneness, understanding of their shared destiny and the pragmatic reversal of domestic roles.

Though Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road was published to critical acclaim in 1961, the writer did not receive his due during his lifetime. In the second article, "Social Realism and Performance in the Work of Richard Yates with Particular Reference to Revolutionary Road," the author, Kate Charlton-Jones, talks about the renewed interest in Yates's works and hopes that Yates's critically acclaimed Revolutionary Road will finally get the recognition it deserves for its classification-defying and life-as-lived portrayal of characters and for "its extraordinary and enduring strength."

Since the 1970s, there have been increased attempts to explain the Native American culture to the rest of the world. In the third article, "Aesthetics of Native American Theater: Hanay Geiogamah's Body Indian," the author, Tessy Anthony C, takes a close look at the Native American theater with specific reference to Hanay Geiogamah's play Body Indian. According to the author, though tribal ceremonies and storytelling are central to Native American culture, the Native American writers have chosen drama, a European medium, to bridge the gap in understanding between the mainstream and the tribal world.

What is `grotesque'? Your dictionary would tell you that anything that is abnormal, absurd, bizarre, deformed, freakish, repulsive and weird is grotesque. What does a `grotesque body' mean in human terms? In the fourth article, "The Grotesque Body and Agency in Katherine Dunn's Geek Love," the author, Neeraja Sundaram, seeks to answer this question by reading the grotesque in Katherine Dunn's popular novel, Geek Love, as a reconfiguration of agency. The author shows how Dunn, by locating the agency in the grotesque body at three levels, challenges our notions related to the normal and bizarre.

A Pulitzer Prize nominee, Norman Maclean is more popularly known as the author of A River Runs Through It. In the fifth article, "Norman Maclean: His Life as a Scholar and a Close Look at Young Men and Fire," the author, Eric B Berg traces the life of Norman Maclean and his intellectual contributions to the American thinking before proceeding to analyze Normal Maclean's nonfiction book Young Men and Fire from a philosophical perspective.

Adolescent love, often unrequited or unrealized, is a popular theme with novelists. In the sixth article, "A Man's Road Back to Himself Is a Return from His Spiritual Exile: Platonic Influences in Saul Bellow's The Actual," the author, Gustavo Sánchez Canales, traces the Platonic influences in Saul Bellow's novella The Actual and draws a parallel between the three main Bellowian characters and the Platonic conception of the lover-the beloved-false lover, as explained in The Phaedrus.

Books on disease and cure not only involve thematic concerns but also narrative concerns. In the seventh article, "The Antibiotic Imagination: Writing Disease in Contemporary America," the author, Pramod K Nayar, takes a close look at the nonfictional disease narratives in contemporary America and lists three principal modes. The author also points out that there is a subtext to science and scientific discourses which is often overlooked.

The United States with its unlimited riches and abundant opportunities is often seen as the proverbial Promised Land. In the last article, "The Far Side of Paradise: An Unconventional View of the US," the author, E Nageswara Rao, takes a critical look at the far side of this paradise. Quoting extensively from literary texts, the author illustrates how America, as a nation, has failed almost on all counts: political, social, environmental and spiritual.

That then is what we have on offer for you in our inaugural issue. Hope you find on this literary menu what you were looking for: an intellectual hors d'oeuvre that leaves you craving for more; a scholarly salsa that leaves all your taste buds teased and tickled; a cerebral barbecue that leaves you contented; or a refreshing cuppa that leaves you energized. Do write us your suggestions and comments. They are very important to make the carte du jour rich and sumptuous.

Bon appetito!

R Venkatesan Iyengar
Consulting Editor