This book discusses works by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Saul Bellow in terms of the conflicts between rhetorical people (actors replete with ever-changing roles, situations, and strategies, and therefore devoid of single roles) and serious people (actors who possess master situations or a referent reality to which they believe everyone can refer), players and doers, artifices and realities, words and the world, and multivocal and univocal interpretations. This book claims that Fitzgerald's and Bellow's treatment of the concepts of actors and acting in their novels provides insights into the dynamic potential of the trope as presented by recent critics and reveals how some literary theories need refinement and modification.

The Author: Jamal Assadi is Chair of the English Department and Coordinator of Practicum (Internship) at The College of Sakhnin for Teacher Education in Israel. He received his Ph.D. in modern American fiction from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England. In addition to numerous articles in professional journals, he is the author of Practicum Guide (2005).