Popular Feminist Fiction as American Allegory: Representing National Time

ISBN-13: 9780230605428 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 225 str.

Jane Elliott

Opis

The end of the cold war politics and the fall of the Berlin wall have had major ethical consequences. In the 90s Ethics have become a rallying point for non-state actors and experts who gather around values and norms in order to oblige institutions to justify their behavior. This process is the result of different changes, the transformation of the international system, the individualization of Western societies and the growing importance of expertise in the justification of decisions in risk adverse societies. Along with the globalization of the economy and the formation of new political coalitions, global ethics are the pillar of our era of international 'turbulence'.

Recenzje

"By charting the modes of temporality structuring post-1960s women's popular fiction, Elliott offers an illuminating way of articulating the narratives of second-wave feminism to evolving conceptions of capitalist America. Her argument that these narratives are, first and foremost, national allegories gives them a refreshing intelligibility and historical agency. It's the kind of argument with which, whether or not they agree with her, future generations of scholars will need to reckon." - Rey Chow, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Brown University and author of Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films

"In this impressive debut, Jane Elliott revisits a fascinating passage in recent American culture, when feminism could advance through popular fiction and critical theory alike. She examines a series of novels both famous and forgotten, unfolding their allegorical layers to show how they speak directly to the changing contours of domination and liberation in women s lives. The book offers timely lessons, not only about the renewable resources of popular cultural forms, but also about the value of allegorical reading for contemporary critical practice." - Richard Dienst, Department of English, Rutgers University

Spis treści

The Problem of Static Time: Totalization, the End of History and the End of the 1960s Heir Apparent: Legacies of the 1960s in The Women's Room and Vida Dead-End Job: The Stepford Wives, Domestic Labor and the End of History Promiscuous Times: Post-Structuralist Desires in Rubyfruit Jungle and Fear of Flying Alice Walker's Hindsight and the Price of Futurity My Mother, Myself: Sentiment and the Transcendence of Time in The Joy Luck Club and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Coda: Hurried Woman Tales

O autorze

JANE ELLIOTT is Lecturer of English at University of York, UK.