Research Catalog

Title

Modern American reading practices : between aesthetics and history / Philip Goldstein.

Author

Goldstein, Philip.

Publication

New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

vi, 181 pages; 22 cm

Summary

"In this thoughtful study, Philip Goldstein shows how the valuation of aesthetics in literary criticism has become increasingly complicated in recent decades. Contemporary readers not only need to look at the text's figures and structure, but they must also take into account various media - including television, movies, magazines, and newspapers - as well as the sexuality, gender, race, and nationality of the author. In this context, Goldstein argues that the study of modern reading practices most effectively preserves the autonomy of aesthetics while revealing the changing social and historical contexts of American readers. Using pluralist perspectives on novels such as Frankenstein, Huckleberry Finn, Native Son, Light in August, and Jazz, this study suggests that these new historical conditions have markedly expanded and transformed the ways in which Americans have defined and read literature in the last two hundred years."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984 > Influence
• American literature > Theory, etc
• English literature > Theory, etc
• Criticism > United States > History > 19th century
• Criticism > United States > History > 20th century
• Books and reading > History > United States > 19th century
• Books and reading > History > United States > 20th century
• Literature > History. > United States
• American fiction > 20th century > History and criticism
• American fiction > 19th century > History and criticism

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [151]-175) and index.

Contents

Introduction. Modern American Reading Practices: Between Aesthetics and History -- 1. Aesthetic Theory: From Marxist Critique to Cultural History -- 2. Aesthetics and Reading: Between Theory and History -- 3. Gothic Romances and the Modern Humanities: The Changing Status of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- 4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: From Liberal Realism to Multiculturalism -- 5. Richard Wright's Native Son: Between Naturalist Protest and Modernist Liberation -- 6. Identity and Convention in Faulkner's Light in August and Morrison's Jazz -- 7. The Politics of Sara Paretsky's Detective Fiction -- Conclusion. From Aesthetics to Reading Practices.

ISBN

• 0230612253 (alk. paper)
• 9780230612259 (alk. paper)

LCCN

• 2008021073
• 40016253966

OCLC

• ocn226357042
• 226357042
• SCSB-5449565

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries