Introduction

Abstract

Hemingway is a canonic figure in the American literary tradition. Anthony Burgess calls him ′the major prose innovator of the century′ ¹ Ihab Hassan judges In Our Time ′the best [collection] written by an American in our century′.² Robert Scholes places him alongside ′the other major figures of modern fiction since Flaubert′.³ However, since his death in 1961 his work and reputation have suffered considerable disparagement, and a liking for Hemingway has come to be seen — at least in some quarters — as a sign of both immaturity and ideological wrong-headedness.