Author: Nick Yablon Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226946657 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 397
Book Description
American ruins have become increasingly prominent, whether in discussions of “urban blight” and home foreclosures, in commemorations of 9/11, or in postapocalyptic movies. In this highly original book, Nick Yablon argues that the association between American cities and ruins dates back to a much earlier period in the nation’s history. Recovering numerous scenes of urban desolation—from failed banks, abandoned towns, and dilapidated tenements to the crumbling skyscrapers and bridges envisioned in science fiction and cartoons—Untimely Ruins challenges the myth that ruins were absent or insignificant objects in nineteenth-century America. The first book to document an American cult of the ruin, Untimely Ruins traces its deviations as well as derivations from European conventions. Unlike classical and Gothic ruins, which decayed gracefully over centuries and inspired philosophical meditations about the fate of civilizations, America’s ruins were often “untimely,” appearing unpredictably and disappearing before they could accrue an aura of age. As modern ruins of steel and iron, they stimulated critical reflections about contemporary cities, and the unfamiliar kinds of experience they enabled. Unearthing evocative sources everywhere from the archives of amateur photographers to the contents of time-capsules, Untimely Ruins exposes crucial debates about the economic, technological, and cultural transformations known as urban modernity. The result is a fascinating cultural history that uncovers fresh perspectives on the American city.
Author: Randolph Silliman Bourne Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand ISBN: 3387306881 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 182
Book Description
Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.
Author: Idelber Avelar Publisher: Duke University Press ISBN: 9780822324157 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 316
Book Description
The Untimely Present examines the fiction produced in the aftermath of the recent Latin American dictatorships, particularly those in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Idelber Avelar argues that through their legacy of social trauma and obliteration of history, these military regimes gave rise to unique and revealing practices of mourning that pervade the literature of this region. The theory of postdictatorial writing developed here is informed by a rereading of the links between mourning and mimesis in Plato, Nietzsche's notion of the untimely, Benjamin's theory of allegory, and psychoanalytic / deconstructive conceptions of mourning. Avelar starts by offering new readings of works produced before the dictatorship era, in what is often considered the boom of Latin American fiction. Distancing himself from previous celebratory interpretations, he understands the boom as a manifestation of mourning for literature's declining aura. Against this background, Avelar offers a reassessment of testimonial forms, social scientific theories of authoritarianism, current transformations undergone by the university, and an analysis of a number of novels by some of today's foremost Latin American writers--such as Ricardo Piglia, Silviano Santiago, Diamela Eltit, João Gilberto Noll, and Tununa Mercado. Avelar shows how the 'untimely' quality of these narratives is related to the position of literature itself, a mode of expression threatened with obsolescence. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Latin American literature and politics, cultural studies, and comparative literature, as well as to all those interested in the role of literature in postmodernity.
Author: Christopher Lasch Publisher: Knopf ISBN: 0307830519 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
Around the turn of the century, the American liberal tradition made a major shift away from politics. The new radicals were more interested in the reform of education, culture, and sexual mores. Through vivid biographies, Christopher Lasch chronicles these social reformers from Jane Addams, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and Lincoln Steffens to Norman Mailer and Dwight MacDonald.
Author: James Aguilar Publisher: AuthorHouse ISBN: 1449019692 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 198
Book Description
In this book, Ralph Waldo Emerson's influence on the United States of America is seen through ten different lenses. The essays are lumped together under four general headings: Emerson and Poetry, Emerson and Social Criticism, Emerson and Intellectualism, and Emerson and Art. Essays link Emerson to Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, John Holt, Randolph Bourne, Frank Lloyd Wright, and John Cassavetes. Emerson is also linked to modern dance, used as a counterargument to political dualism and rampant technological progression, and interrogated for the social deficiencies of his philosophy. All in all, the work is an attempt to revitalize a great American thinker, and to show how those who have followed his example and his words continue to make this country great today.
Author: Nick Yablon
Author: Randolph Silliman Bourne
Author: Idelber Avelar
Author: Kelly Stephen Searl
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Author: United States. Patent and Trademark Office
Author: Christopher Lasch
Author: United States. Patent and Trademark Office
Author: James Aguilar
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