The Literature of Labor and the Labors of Literature: Allegory in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction

ISBN-13: 9780521470544 / Angielski / Twarda / 1995 / 284 str.

Wienstein; Cindy Weinstein; Albert Gelpi

Opis

This book juxtaposes representations of labor in fictional texts with representations of labor in nonfictional texts in order to trace the intersections between aesthetic and economic discourse in nineteenth-century America. This intersection is particularly evident in the debates about symbol and allegory, and Cindy Weinstein contends that allegory during this period was critiqued on precisely the same grounds as mechanized labor. In the course of completing a historical investigation, Weinstein revolutionizes the notion of allegorical narrative, which is exposed as a literary medium of greater depth and consequence than has previously been implied.

Recenzje

'More than any critic I can think of, Cindy Weinstein has developed a sustained argument about the historical conditions for allegory … this bold new theory of allegory puts Cindy Weinstein at the forefront of a new generation of Americanists.' Wai-Chee Dimock, Brandeis University

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The problem with labor and the promise of leisure; 2. Hawthorne and the economics of allegory; 3. Melville's operatives; 4. Twain in the man-factory; 5. The manikin, the machine, and the Virgin Mary; Afterword; Notes; Index.