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.
