No Accident, Comrade

Chance and Design in Cold War American Narratives

Nonfiction, History, Americas, North America, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Customs & Traditions, Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American
Cover of the book No Accident, Comrade by Steven Belletto, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Steven Belletto ISBN: 9780190208561
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: December 28, 2011
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Steven Belletto
ISBN: 9780190208561
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: December 28, 2011
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

No Accident, Comrade argues that chance became a complex yet conflicted cultural signifier during the Cold War, when a range of thinkers--politicians, novelists, historians, biologists, sociologists, and others--contended that totalitarianism denied the very existence and operation of chance in the world. They claimed that the USSR perpetrated a vast fiction on its population, a fiction amplified by the Soviet view that there is no such thing as chance or accident, only manifestations of historical law (hence the popular American refrain used to refer to Marxism: "It was no accident, Comrade"). By reading an expansive range of American novels published between 1947-2005, alongside nonfiction texts by the likes of Jerzy Kosinski, Daniel Bell, Ian Hacking, and mid-century game theorists, No Accident, Comrade explains how associations of chance with democratic freedom and the denial of chance with totalitarianism circulated in Cold War America. Chance became tied to the liberties of U.S. democracy, whereas its eradication or denial became symptomatic of Soviet tyranny. With works by Nabokov, Ellison, Pynchon, Didion, DeLillo, Colson Whitehead, and many others, Steven Belletto shows how writers developed innovative strategies for dealing with and incorporating these ever-present beliefs about chance and its role in their culture. These newly developed narrative techniques allowed them to theorize, satirize, and make sense of the constantly changing relationship between the individual and the state during a largely rhetorical conflict.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

No Accident, Comrade argues that chance became a complex yet conflicted cultural signifier during the Cold War, when a range of thinkers--politicians, novelists, historians, biologists, sociologists, and others--contended that totalitarianism denied the very existence and operation of chance in the world. They claimed that the USSR perpetrated a vast fiction on its population, a fiction amplified by the Soviet view that there is no such thing as chance or accident, only manifestations of historical law (hence the popular American refrain used to refer to Marxism: "It was no accident, Comrade"). By reading an expansive range of American novels published between 1947-2005, alongside nonfiction texts by the likes of Jerzy Kosinski, Daniel Bell, Ian Hacking, and mid-century game theorists, No Accident, Comrade explains how associations of chance with democratic freedom and the denial of chance with totalitarianism circulated in Cold War America. Chance became tied to the liberties of U.S. democracy, whereas its eradication or denial became symptomatic of Soviet tyranny. With works by Nabokov, Ellison, Pynchon, Didion, DeLillo, Colson Whitehead, and many others, Steven Belletto shows how writers developed innovative strategies for dealing with and incorporating these ever-present beliefs about chance and its role in their culture. These newly developed narrative techniques allowed them to theorize, satirize, and make sense of the constantly changing relationship between the individual and the state during a largely rhetorical conflict.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book The Guide to Interpersonal Psychotherapy by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Hume's Skeptical Crisis by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book The Wealth of Wives by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Hidden Children of the Holocaust:Belgian Nuns and their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the Nazis by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Storytelling - Oxford Basics by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Fatima: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Swimming Upstream by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Virtually Sacred by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Appraisal Processes in Emotion by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Revolutionary Citizens by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Confrontations with the Reaper by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Roman History: Early to Republic: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide by Steven Belletto
Cover of the book Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World by Steven Belletto
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy