1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Scott Bradfield - A Critical Voice from America

Scott Bradfield has been called one of the most brilliant American authors. He critically dissects the 'American Way of Life'.

https://p.dw.com/p/16M3
Scott BradfieldImage: Messe Leipzig

One of the most original voices from America, author Scott Bradfield was born in California in 1955.

He taught for five years at the University of California, Irvine, where he received a doctorate in American Literature. He has written three novels - The History of Luminous Motion, What's Wrong with America? and Animal Planet.

A brilliant satirist and critic, Bradfield paints a wicked picture of the American way of life, his protagonists sustaining on fast food, television and inflated egos. From political and sexual correctness in the academic sphere to the public relations buzz over the book as a cultural commodity - all come under his vitriolic attack.

A devious mix of black humor and satirical barbs at the "commercialization of culture" in the western world run through his books. Bradfield's Animal Planet, a biting parody on globalization, has often been compared to George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Scott Bradfield has also written a volume of collected stories, Greetings from Earth and a work of nonfiction entitled Dream Revolution: Transgression in the Development of American Romance.

In addition, the American author has written a host of short stories as well as texts for both film and television. Recent adaptations of his work have been released both in the United States as well as abroad.

In the fall term of 2000/2001, he completed a guest professorship for literature at the FU Berlin (Freie Universität or Free University Berlin). He taught a class titled Literature and Crap in American Pop Culture - What we like to Read and what we're supposed to.

Today Scott Bradfield lives in London as a novelist and a literary critic. He reviews regularly for The Times (London), The New York Times Book Review, and The Times Literary Supplement. He continues teaching