Literature, Amusement, and Technology in the Great Depression
Seiten
2002
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-0-521-81343-3 (ISBN)
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-0-521-81343-3 (ISBN)
Solomon examines the exchange between literature and recreation in 1930s America, arguing that writers of the period took inspiration from urban manifestations of the carnival spirit: amusement parks, vaudeville, and the dime museum display of human oddities.
Literature, Amusement and Technology examines the exchange between literature and recreational practices in 1930s America. William Solomon argues that autobiographical writers like Edward Dahlberg and Henry Miller took aesthetic inspiration from urban manifestations of the carnival spirit: Coney Island amusement parks, burlesque, vaudeville, and the dime museum display of human oddities. More broadly, he demonstrates that the literary projects of the period pivoted around images of grotesquely disfigured bodies which appeared as part of this recreational culture. Figures of corporeal fragmentation also proved important to novelists such as Nathanael West and John Dos Passos who were concerned to resist the ideological force of spectacular forms of mass entertainment like the World's Fairs, Hollywood film and military ceremonies. Psychic, social, aesthetic and political tensions were thus managed in Depression-era American literature in relation to communal modes of play. This study will appeal to scholars of twentieth-century American literature and culture.
Literature, Amusement and Technology examines the exchange between literature and recreational practices in 1930s America. William Solomon argues that autobiographical writers like Edward Dahlberg and Henry Miller took aesthetic inspiration from urban manifestations of the carnival spirit: Coney Island amusement parks, burlesque, vaudeville, and the dime museum display of human oddities. More broadly, he demonstrates that the literary projects of the period pivoted around images of grotesquely disfigured bodies which appeared as part of this recreational culture. Figures of corporeal fragmentation also proved important to novelists such as Nathanael West and John Dos Passos who were concerned to resist the ideological force of spectacular forms of mass entertainment like the World's Fairs, Hollywood film and military ceremonies. Psychic, social, aesthetic and political tensions were thus managed in Depression-era American literature in relation to communal modes of play. This study will appeal to scholars of twentieth-century American literature and culture.
William Solomon is Assistant Professor in the Departments of English and American Studies at Stanford University. He has published essays in American Literature, Texas Studies in Language and Literature, and Style. This is his first book.
Introduction: disfigurations; 1. Disinterring Edward Dahlberg; 2. Laughter and depression: Henry Miller and the emergence of the technocarnivalesque; Intermission: vulgar Marxism; 3. Fascism and fragmentation in Nathanael West; 4. Militarism and mutilation in John Dos Passos; Postface: discharges; Notes; Index.
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 1.8.2002 |
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Reihe/Serie | Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture |
Verlagsort | Cambridge |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
Gewicht | 590 g |
Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturgeschichte | |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
ISBN-10 | 0-521-81343-3 / 0521813433 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-521-81343-3 / 9780521813433 |
Zustand | Neuware |
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