ABSTRACT
The introduction presents the book’s structure, each chapter’s topic, theoretical framework and research methodology. A central argument is explained: instead of considering Auster, Jarmusch and Waits as un-American voices, this book looks at them as quintessential American authors. The argument is that Auster, Jarmusch and Waits phrase a criticism of American society “from within” that very society. Like Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and the many who followed their ideas, they have criticised life in the United States, while embracing its original ideals of social justice and equality. This tradition is best summarised with Leo Marx’s “doctrine of ‘doubleness’,” namely the attitude to criticise America as it is – greedy and plutocratic – never losing sight of America as it ought to be – egalitarian and democratic.
