Author: Oliver Steinert-Lieschied
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640562038
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 69
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,2, University of Göttingen, language: English, abstract: With his "Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899), which is nowadays considered one of his most popular works, Veblen made himself a social outsider because his criticism of society was harsh and provoking. Although he accepted utilitarianism and praised the industrial efficiency of the engineering professions, he rejected what Mills calls the American value of the "heraldry of the greenback" and the "pecuniary fanatism of the business chieftain". Still his work was widely read and many of the problems which he saw in contemporary American society are even nowadays still quite relevant. Dreiser's first successful novel "Sister Carrie" was written in 1900, only one year after Veblen's main work had been published. This fact, as well as the widespread interest in Veblen's theories throughout America may have influenced Dreiser at least indirectly. More important though, is whether there is some textual evidence to prove their agreements and disagreements concerning their critique of society. In contrast to Veblen, Dreiser did not have a solid educational background and was in fact "almost a generation behind the sweep of American intellectual life" (Noble, "Dreiser and Veblen and the Literature of Cultural Change"), so many of his explanations of human hehaviour were made in terms of "chemisms" (Noble 149). Dreiser at times tended to believe Spencer's theories of social-Darwinism and that man was not much more than a "machine" and mainly controlled by physical laws, while Veblen had rather moved beyond such notions (Noble 149). On a deeper level though, Noble considers the supposedly post-Spencerian Veblen to have unconsciously clinged to Spencer's belief in optimistic progressivism, while Dreiser had in fact transcended such notions and raised some doubts about the belief in inevitable and controlled progress in his works (Nobl
The Representation of Veblen's Concepts from the Theory of the Leisure Class in Dreisers Sister Carrie
Author: Oliver Steinert-Lieschied
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640562038
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 69
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,2, University of Göttingen, language: English, abstract: With his "Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899), which is nowadays considered one of his most popular works, Veblen made himself a social outsider because his criticism of society was harsh and provoking. Although he accepted utilitarianism and praised the industrial efficiency of the engineering professions, he rejected what Mills calls the American value of the "heraldry of the greenback" and the "pecuniary fanatism of the business chieftain". Still his work was widely read and many of the problems which he saw in contemporary American society are even nowadays still quite relevant. Dreiser's first successful novel "Sister Carrie" was written in 1900, only one year after Veblen's main work had been published. This fact, as well as the widespread interest in Veblen's theories throughout America may have influenced Dreiser at least indirectly. More important though, is whether there is some textual evidence to prove their agreements and disagreements concerning their critique of society. In contrast to Veblen, Dreiser did not have a solid educational background and was in fact "almost a generation behind the sweep of American intellectual life" (Noble, "Dreiser and Veblen and the Literature of Cultural Change"), so many of his explanations of human hehaviour were made in terms of "chemisms" (Noble 149). Dreiser at times tended to believe Spencer's theories of social-Darwinism and that man was not much more than a "machine" and mainly controlled by physical laws, while Veblen had rather moved beyond such notions (Noble 149). On a deeper level though, Noble considers the supposedly post-Spencerian Veblen to have unconsciously clinged to Spencer's belief in optimistic progressivism, while Dreiser had in fact transcended such notions and raised some doubts about the belief in inevitable and controlled progress in his works (Nobl
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640562038
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 69
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,2, University of Göttingen, language: English, abstract: With his "Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899), which is nowadays considered one of his most popular works, Veblen made himself a social outsider because his criticism of society was harsh and provoking. Although he accepted utilitarianism and praised the industrial efficiency of the engineering professions, he rejected what Mills calls the American value of the "heraldry of the greenback" and the "pecuniary fanatism of the business chieftain". Still his work was widely read and many of the problems which he saw in contemporary American society are even nowadays still quite relevant. Dreiser's first successful novel "Sister Carrie" was written in 1900, only one year after Veblen's main work had been published. This fact, as well as the widespread interest in Veblen's theories throughout America may have influenced Dreiser at least indirectly. More important though, is whether there is some textual evidence to prove their agreements and disagreements concerning their critique of society. In contrast to Veblen, Dreiser did not have a solid educational background and was in fact "almost a generation behind the sweep of American intellectual life" (Noble, "Dreiser and Veblen and the Literature of Cultural Change"), so many of his explanations of human hehaviour were made in terms of "chemisms" (Noble 149). Dreiser at times tended to believe Spencer's theories of social-Darwinism and that man was not much more than a "machine" and mainly controlled by physical laws, while Veblen had rather moved beyond such notions (Noble 149). On a deeper level though, Noble considers the supposedly post-Spencerian Veblen to have unconsciously clinged to Spencer's belief in optimistic progressivism, while Dreiser had in fact transcended such notions and raised some doubts about the belief in inevitable and controlled progress in his works (Nobl
The Representation of Veblen‘s Concepts from the "Theory of the Leisure Class" in Dreisers "Sister Carrie"
Author: Oliver Steinert-Lieschied
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640562119
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 33
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,2, University of Göttingen, language: English, abstract: With his "Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899), which is nowadays considered one of his most popular works, Veblen made himself a social outsider because his criticism of society was harsh and provoking. Although he accepted utilitarianism and praised the industrial efficiency of the engineering professions, he rejected what Mills calls the American value of the "heraldry of the greenback" and the "pecuniary fanatism of the business chieftain". Still his work was widely read and many of the problems which he saw in contemporary American society are even nowadays still quite relevant. Dreiser's first successful novel "Sister Carrie" was written in 1900, only one year after Veblen's main work had been published. This fact, as well as the widespread interest in Veblen's theories throughout America may have influenced Dreiser at least indirectly. More important though, is whether there is some textual evidence to prove their agreements and disagreements concerning their critique of society. In contrast to Veblen, Dreiser did not have a solid educational background and was in fact "almost a generation behind the sweep of American intellectual life" (Noble, "Dreiser and Veblen and the Literature of Cultural Change"), so many of his explanations of human hehaviour were made in terms of "chemisms" (Noble 149). Dreiser at times tended to believe Spencer's theories of social-Darwinism and that man was not much more than a „machine“ and mainly controlled by physical laws, while Veblen had rather moved beyond such notions (Noble 149). On a deeper level though, Noble considers the supposedly post-Spencerian Veblen to have unconsciously clinged to Spencer's belief in optimistic progressivism, while Dreiser had in fact transcended such notions and raised some doubts about the belief in inevitable and controlled progress in his works (Noble 148). Noble states that the "America described by Dreiser in Sister Carrie is an entirely different world from that of Thorstein Veblen." (Noble 150). In contrast to this position, Eby states that many of the behaviours and motivations of the protagonists in "Sister Carrie" are in accordance to Veblen’s concepts. She even calls Hurstwood’s fall the „Tragedy of Noninvidiousness“ (Eby 128). In how far the characters in Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" actually behave accordingly to Veblen's concepts or not, is the topic of this work. Through my findings I will form a conclusion, in how far Veblen's and Dreiser's views of America are congruent.
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640562119
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 33
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,2, University of Göttingen, language: English, abstract: With his "Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899), which is nowadays considered one of his most popular works, Veblen made himself a social outsider because his criticism of society was harsh and provoking. Although he accepted utilitarianism and praised the industrial efficiency of the engineering professions, he rejected what Mills calls the American value of the "heraldry of the greenback" and the "pecuniary fanatism of the business chieftain". Still his work was widely read and many of the problems which he saw in contemporary American society are even nowadays still quite relevant. Dreiser's first successful novel "Sister Carrie" was written in 1900, only one year after Veblen's main work had been published. This fact, as well as the widespread interest in Veblen's theories throughout America may have influenced Dreiser at least indirectly. More important though, is whether there is some textual evidence to prove their agreements and disagreements concerning their critique of society. In contrast to Veblen, Dreiser did not have a solid educational background and was in fact "almost a generation behind the sweep of American intellectual life" (Noble, "Dreiser and Veblen and the Literature of Cultural Change"), so many of his explanations of human hehaviour were made in terms of "chemisms" (Noble 149). Dreiser at times tended to believe Spencer's theories of social-Darwinism and that man was not much more than a „machine“ and mainly controlled by physical laws, while Veblen had rather moved beyond such notions (Noble 149). On a deeper level though, Noble considers the supposedly post-Spencerian Veblen to have unconsciously clinged to Spencer's belief in optimistic progressivism, while Dreiser had in fact transcended such notions and raised some doubts about the belief in inevitable and controlled progress in his works (Noble 148). Noble states that the "America described by Dreiser in Sister Carrie is an entirely different world from that of Thorstein Veblen." (Noble 150). In contrast to this position, Eby states that many of the behaviours and motivations of the protagonists in "Sister Carrie" are in accordance to Veblen’s concepts. She even calls Hurstwood’s fall the „Tragedy of Noninvidiousness“ (Eby 128). In how far the characters in Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" actually behave accordingly to Veblen's concepts or not, is the topic of this work. Through my findings I will form a conclusion, in how far Veblen's and Dreiser's views of America are congruent.
Twentieth-Century America
Author: Douglas Tallack
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317870581
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 454
Book Description
The multi-volume Longman literature in English series aims to provide students of literature with a critical introduction to the major genres in their historical and cultural context. This book looks at cinema, painting and architecture in 20th-century America, as well as the culture of politics.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317870581
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 454
Book Description
The multi-volume Longman literature in English series aims to provide students of literature with a critical introduction to the major genres in their historical and cultural context. This book looks at cinema, painting and architecture in 20th-century America, as well as the culture of politics.
Freewomen and Supermen
Author: Anne Fernihough
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199668620
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Book Description
Freewomen and Supermen examines the progressive, innovative, and sometimes wildly eccentric nature of radical thought in the Edwardian period and shows how Edwardian radical thought was to play a crucial role in the development of literary modernism.
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199668620
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Book Description
Freewomen and Supermen examines the progressive, innovative, and sometimes wildly eccentric nature of radical thought in the Edwardian period and shows how Edwardian radical thought was to play a crucial role in the development of literary modernism.
Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser's Sociological Tragedy
Author: David E. E. Sloane
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
"Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie (1900) broke new literary ground in a number of ways. Its graphic documentary style, urban setting, and concern with economic and sociological issues set it apart from popular fiction of the period. In his characteristically detailed and awkwardly methodical style, Dreiser crafted characters and situations that dramatize the forces of economic necessity, social censure, and urban anonymity. Set in turn-of-the-century Chicago and New York, the novel explores the life of Carrie Meeber, a poor rural woman whose naivete and poverty make her an ideal target for the dangers of urban life. Dreiser depicts the dilemma created by Carrie's desire to succeed and find security in a morally and financially compromised society that lures her with its glitter." "David E. E. Sloane's study proposes that Dreiser's sociological tragedy uses the details of the cityscape and the lives of its urban characters to build a drama in which none of the characters are able to achieve real happiness. Sloane demonstrates how Dreiser used themes already of concern to his readers but managed them in ways that challenged the moral and sexual assumptions of the day. Sloane's thesis is that the novel addresses economic inequality by showing that even in the poor and inarticulate like Carrie Meeber there are physical and spiritual drives that need expression but that are repressed by social mores. The study offers a detailed examination of how Dreiser's stylistic and structural choices are perfectly suited to his material, and shows how the novel forged the way for other socially conscious works in the twentieth-century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
"Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie (1900) broke new literary ground in a number of ways. Its graphic documentary style, urban setting, and concern with economic and sociological issues set it apart from popular fiction of the period. In his characteristically detailed and awkwardly methodical style, Dreiser crafted characters and situations that dramatize the forces of economic necessity, social censure, and urban anonymity. Set in turn-of-the-century Chicago and New York, the novel explores the life of Carrie Meeber, a poor rural woman whose naivete and poverty make her an ideal target for the dangers of urban life. Dreiser depicts the dilemma created by Carrie's desire to succeed and find security in a morally and financially compromised society that lures her with its glitter." "David E. E. Sloane's study proposes that Dreiser's sociological tragedy uses the details of the cityscape and the lives of its urban characters to build a drama in which none of the characters are able to achieve real happiness. Sloane demonstrates how Dreiser used themes already of concern to his readers but managed them in ways that challenged the moral and sexual assumptions of the day. Sloane's thesis is that the novel addresses economic inequality by showing that even in the poor and inarticulate like Carrie Meeber there are physical and spiritual drives that need expression but that are repressed by social mores. The study offers a detailed examination of how Dreiser's stylistic and structural choices are perfectly suited to his material, and shows how the novel forged the way for other socially conscious works in the twentieth-century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
American Hungers
Author: Gavin Jones
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400831911
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
Social anxiety about poverty surfaces with startling frequency in American literature. Yet, as Gavin Jones argues, poverty has been denied its due as a critical and ideological framework in its own right, despite recent interest in representations of the lower classes and the marginalized. These insights lay the groundwork for American Hungers, in which Jones uncovers a complex and controversial discourse on the poor that stretches from the antebellum era through the Depression. Reading writers such as Herman Melville, Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, James Agee, and Richard Wright in their historical contexts, Jones explores why they succeeded where literary critics have fallen short. These authors acknowledged a poverty that was as aesthetically and culturally significant as it was socially and materially real. They confronted the ideological dilemmas of approaching poverty while giving language to the marginalized poor--the beggars, tramps, sharecroppers, and factory workers who form a persistent segment of American society. Far from peripheral, poverty emerges at the center of national debates about social justice, citizenship, and minority identity. And literature becomes a crucial tool to understand an economic and cultural condition that is at once urgent and elusive because it cuts across the categories of race, gender, and class by which we conventionally understand social difference. Combining social theory with literary analysis, American Hungers masterfully brings poverty into the mainstream critical idiom.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400831911
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
Social anxiety about poverty surfaces with startling frequency in American literature. Yet, as Gavin Jones argues, poverty has been denied its due as a critical and ideological framework in its own right, despite recent interest in representations of the lower classes and the marginalized. These insights lay the groundwork for American Hungers, in which Jones uncovers a complex and controversial discourse on the poor that stretches from the antebellum era through the Depression. Reading writers such as Herman Melville, Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, James Agee, and Richard Wright in their historical contexts, Jones explores why they succeeded where literary critics have fallen short. These authors acknowledged a poverty that was as aesthetically and culturally significant as it was socially and materially real. They confronted the ideological dilemmas of approaching poverty while giving language to the marginalized poor--the beggars, tramps, sharecroppers, and factory workers who form a persistent segment of American society. Far from peripheral, poverty emerges at the center of national debates about social justice, citizenship, and minority identity. And literature becomes a crucial tool to understand an economic and cultural condition that is at once urgent and elusive because it cuts across the categories of race, gender, and class by which we conventionally understand social difference. Combining social theory with literary analysis, American Hungers masterfully brings poverty into the mainstream critical idiom.
American Literary Realism
The "new Woman" Revised
Author: Ellen Wiley Todd
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520074712
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
In the years between the world wars, Manhattan's Fourteenth Street-Union Square district became a center for commercial, cultural, and political activities, and hence a sensitive barometer of the dramatic social changes of the period. It was here that four urban realist painters--Kenneth Hayes Miller, Reginald Marsh, Raphael Soyer, and Isabel Bishop--placed their images of modern "new women." Bargain stores, cheap movie theaters, pinball arcades, and radical political organizations were the backdrop for the women shoppers, office and store workers, and consumers of mass culture portrayed by these artists. Ellen Wiley Todd deftly interprets the painters' complex images as they were refracted through the gender ideology of the period. This is a work of skillful interdisciplinary scholarship, combining recent insights from feminist art history, gender studies, and social and cultural theory. Drawing on a range of visual and verbal representations as well as biographical and critical texts, Todd balances the historical context surrounding the painters with nuanced analyses of how each artist's image of womanhood contributed to the continual redefining of the "new woman's" relationships to men, family, work, feminism, and sexuality.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520074712
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
In the years between the world wars, Manhattan's Fourteenth Street-Union Square district became a center for commercial, cultural, and political activities, and hence a sensitive barometer of the dramatic social changes of the period. It was here that four urban realist painters--Kenneth Hayes Miller, Reginald Marsh, Raphael Soyer, and Isabel Bishop--placed their images of modern "new women." Bargain stores, cheap movie theaters, pinball arcades, and radical political organizations were the backdrop for the women shoppers, office and store workers, and consumers of mass culture portrayed by these artists. Ellen Wiley Todd deftly interprets the painters' complex images as they were refracted through the gender ideology of the period. This is a work of skillful interdisciplinary scholarship, combining recent insights from feminist art history, gender studies, and social and cultural theory. Drawing on a range of visual and verbal representations as well as biographical and critical texts, Todd balances the historical context surrounding the painters with nuanced analyses of how each artist's image of womanhood contributed to the continual redefining of the "new woman's" relationships to men, family, work, feminism, and sexuality.
Social Inequality in Canada
Author: Alan Stewart Frizzell
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0886292794
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Social Inequality in Canada brings a comparative perspective to the question of the uniqueness of Canadian society. Do Canadians believe they can succeed on the basis of their own abilities? And how do they compare with Americans, Germans, Italians, Australians and Russians? There is much debate as to how Canadians differ from or resemble citizens of other countries, particularly the United States.
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0886292794
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Social Inequality in Canada brings a comparative perspective to the question of the uniqueness of Canadian society. Do Canadians believe they can succeed on the basis of their own abilities? And how do they compare with Americans, Germans, Italians, Australians and Russians? There is much debate as to how Canadians differ from or resemble citizens of other countries, particularly the United States.
The Urban Sublime in American Literary Naturalism
Author: Christophe Den Tandt
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252024023
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
In this dynamic reappraisal of American literary naturalism, Christophe Den Tandt connects late nineteenth-century fiction to its romantic, urban gothic roots and to recent discussions of the sublime in postmodern theory. Den Tandt focuses on aspects of naturalist novels -- their use of hyperbole and hysteria, of the grotesque and the abject, of uncanniness and mesmerism -- that have often been left in the periphery of naturalist discourse. He argues that realistic strategies of literary representation can never succeed in depicting the urban environment since the logic of the city rests on a network of hidden relations. Naturalist texts try to resolve this dilemma by opposing sublime components and realistic documentary elements.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252024023
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
In this dynamic reappraisal of American literary naturalism, Christophe Den Tandt connects late nineteenth-century fiction to its romantic, urban gothic roots and to recent discussions of the sublime in postmodern theory. Den Tandt focuses on aspects of naturalist novels -- their use of hyperbole and hysteria, of the grotesque and the abject, of uncanniness and mesmerism -- that have often been left in the periphery of naturalist discourse. He argues that realistic strategies of literary representation can never succeed in depicting the urban environment since the logic of the city rests on a network of hidden relations. Naturalist texts try to resolve this dilemma by opposing sublime components and realistic documentary elements.