Literature, Amusement, and Technology in the Great Depression

ISBN-13: 9780521813433 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 284 str.

William Solomon; Albert Gelpi; Ross Posnock

Opis

This study examines the exchange between literature and recreational practices in 1930s America. William Solomon argues that autobiographical writers like Edward Dahlberg and Henry Miller derived 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.

Recenzje

"Along the way Soloman recuperates the reputation of an important writer (Dahlberg), offers an illuminating reading of Nelson Algren's novel Somebody in Boots, and meditates on the language of James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Supplemented with extensive notes, this is a theoretically sophisticated and engagingly written analysis. Highly recommended." Choice

Spis treści

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.