Victim - Victim

…After spending most of his twenties working in various jobs while devoting himself to his creative endeavors, his first novel, The Dangling Man, was published in 1944 and was well received. In 1946, he was hired as an English instructor at the University of Minnesota, and since then, he has been teaching English literature and creative writing at various universities while continuing his active creative endeavors. Both his first novel and his second work, The Victim (1947), realistically depict the urban life of ordinary people in modern times, while the former explores the essence of human freedom, and the latter sharply explores the subtleties of human relationships in which the victim can also be the perpetrator. These are intellectual novels with an ideological tone that is rare in American novels. The Adventures of Auggie March (1953) is a complete departure from his earlier work, in which the protagonist talks eloquently about his turbulent life, vividly depicting modern society through the journey of self-discovery of a boy born into a poor family in Chicago. …

*Some of the terminology explanations that mention "victim" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…20代の大半をさまざまな職業につきながらの創作精進に過ごしたあげく，1944年に発表した処女長編《宙ぶらりんの男》が好評を博し，続いて46年には英語の講師としてミネソタ大学に就職，以来方々の大学で英文学や創作指導の授業を担当しながら，活発な創作活動を続けている。前述の処女長編も第2作《犠牲者》(1947)も，現代の庶民の都市生活を写実的に描きながら，前者では人間の〈自由〉の本質を，後者では被害者がそのまま加害者でもありうる人間関係の機微を鋭く追求して，アメリカ小説には珍しく思想性を表面に出した知的な肌合いの小説である。《オーギー･マーチの冒険》(1953)はまた一転して，主人公が饒舌体の語り口で波乱にみちた自分の半生を語るという結構をとり，シカゴの貧家に生まれた少年の自己探求の旅を軸に現代社会を活写したピカレスク風の長編。…

※「《犠牲者》」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

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