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Critical Insights: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey's pivotal novel tackled ideas of institutionalization in a time when mental illness was highly stigmatized. Essays in this volume include a survey of the novel's critical reception, a comparison of Cuckoo's Nest to The Grapes of Wrath, and an examination of themes such as race, gender roles, and early American humor.
Set in Oregon psychiatric hospital in the early 1960s, Ken Kesey's pivotal novel tackled ideas of institutionalization in a time when mental illness was highly stigmatized. Essays in this volume include a survey of the novel's critical reception, a comparison of Cuckoo's Nest to The Grapes of Wrath, and an examination of themes such as race, gender roles, and early American humor.
Each Critical Insights is divided into four sections:
An Introduction – The book and the author
The book opens with a brief overview of Kesey’s life, prepared by Jeff Moody.
Critical Contexts
Each of these is designed to place Cuckoo’s Nest within some important, larger framework, including situating the novel in the contexts of various literary
and cultural traditions as well as in the contexts of its immediate times. This is followed by a look at what has been discussed about the novel by previous critics.
Critical Readings
The next major section of the present volume offers a series of diverse critical perspectives on Kesey’s novel. This section starts off with a chapter than offers a chronological overview of commentary on the various 'minority' characters presented in the novel. On the same topic, there is defense of the novel against charges that it is insensitive to minority characters. This is followed by a discussion on the relationship between Cuckoo's Nest and nineteenth-century American humor. Readers will also see the relationship between the novel and twentieth-century theories about gender and more specifically, masculinity.
The idea of 'gatekeeping' is broached to explore the various ways gatekeepers and gatekeeping are presented in Cuckoo's Nest. Kesey's long-time friend, Ed McClanahan, reminisces about the author. And finally, the book closes with three more overviews of critical comments on the novel and/or its adaptations.
Each essay is 2,500-5,000 words in length and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes.
Additional Resources:
- Chronology of Ken Kesey's Life
- Works by Ken Kesey
- Bibliography
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Index
