The American literary hero has often been portrayed as a self-willed orphan, an individualistic character who breaks with his origins and begins a new life by himself, alone and unencumbered by the responsibilities of family life. Moreover, American literary fathers, when/if present, tend to be represented as authoritarian and repressive figures. Nevertheless, the aim of this paper will be twofold. On the one hand, it will explore, and re-assess, several theoretical explanations that may help account for such dichotomous representation of fatherhood as an absent or repressive institution in U.S literature. On the other hand, it will posit both the feasibility and the desirability of moving beyond traditional binary conceptions of American fatherhood, illustrating the plurality as well as the irreducible complexity of fathers in American literary history.
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