Book contents
- Chicago: A Literary History
- Chicago
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Literary History of Chicago
- Part I The Rise of Chicago and the Literary West
- Part II Business Unusual: A New Urban American Literature
- Part III Radicalism, Modernism, and the Chicago Renaissance
- Part IV A City of Neighborhoods: The Great Depression, Sociology, and the Black Chicago Renaissance
- Part V Traditions and Futures: Contemporary Chicago Literatures
- Chapter 23 Division Street America: The Nine Chicago Literary Lives of Studs Terkel
- Chapter 24 Sexual and Other Perversities: David Mamet and Contemporary Chicago Theater
- Chapter 25 Chicago Crime, Blue Collar and White: Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski Novels
- Chapter 26 Drawing Chicago: Chris Ware’s Graphic City
- Chapter 27 Across Neighborhood and National Boundaries: Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and Mexican Chicago
- Chapter 28 Stuart Dybek and the New Chicago’s Literature of Neighborhood
- Chapter 29 Chicago Now: Aleksandar Hemon, Dmitry Samarov, Erika L. Sánchez, and the Contemporary City of Immigrants
- Chapter 30 Afterword: What Will Become of Us? The Future of Chicago Literatures
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 23 - Division Street America: The Nine Chicago Literary Lives of Studs Terkel
from Part V - Traditions and Futures: Contemporary Chicago Literatures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2021
- Chicago: A Literary History
- Chicago
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Literary History of Chicago
- Part I The Rise of Chicago and the Literary West
- Part II Business Unusual: A New Urban American Literature
- Part III Radicalism, Modernism, and the Chicago Renaissance
- Part IV A City of Neighborhoods: The Great Depression, Sociology, and the Black Chicago Renaissance
- Part V Traditions and Futures: Contemporary Chicago Literatures
- Chapter 23 Division Street America: The Nine Chicago Literary Lives of Studs Terkel
- Chapter 24 Sexual and Other Perversities: David Mamet and Contemporary Chicago Theater
- Chapter 25 Chicago Crime, Blue Collar and White: Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski Novels
- Chapter 26 Drawing Chicago: Chris Ware’s Graphic City
- Chapter 27 Across Neighborhood and National Boundaries: Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and Mexican Chicago
- Chapter 28 Stuart Dybek and the New Chicago’s Literature of Neighborhood
- Chapter 29 Chicago Now: Aleksandar Hemon, Dmitry Samarov, Erika L. Sánchez, and the Contemporary City of Immigrants
- Chapter 30 Afterword: What Will Become of Us? The Future of Chicago Literatures
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Studs Terkel was a pivotal figure in the popularization of oral history as a literary genre and he is a key point of reference in today’s cultural radio and podcasting worlds. He was also one of the central synthesizers and champions of Chicago literature, drawing deep inspiration from earlier writers and advocating for subsequent generations. This chapter explores how Terkel crafted a variety of inventive “literary lives”: 1) Urban Literary Mythmaker, 2) Eclectic Disc Jockey, 3) Coach for Chicago’s Literary Scene, 4) Co-founder of a Peoples’ Oral History, 5) Soapbox Poet, 6) Global Literary Ambassador, 7) Sidewalk Professor, 8) Memory Palace Archivist, and 9) Humanist Trickster. Key biographic events in Terkel’s life and his links with other key Chicago writers are explored.
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- Information
- ChicagoA Literary History, pp. 327 - 342Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021