Surveyors of Customs

American Literature as Cultural Analysis

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American
Cover of the book Surveyors of Customs by Joel Pfister, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Joel Pfister ISBN: 9780190493677
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: December 29, 2015
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Joel Pfister
ISBN: 9780190493677
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: December 29, 2015
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, fired from Salem's Custom House and returning to writing, reconceived his old job title, Surveyor of Customs, as his new one. Taking seriously this naming of the American author's project, Joel Pfister argues that writers from Benjamin Franklin to Louise Erdrich can be read as critical "surveyors" of customs, culture, hegemony, capitalism's emotional logic, and much else. Literary surveyors have helped make possible and can advance what we now call cultural analysis. In recent decades cultural theory and history have changed how we read literature. Literature can return the favor. America's achievement as a literary nation has contributed creatively to its accomplishment as a self-critical nation. The surveyors convened herein wrote novels, stories, plays, poetry, essays, autobiography, journals, and cultural criticism. Surveyors of Customs explores literature's insights into how America--its soft capitalism, its "democratized" inequality, its Americanization of power--"ticks." Historical--and timely--questions abound. When and why did capitalism invest in the secular "soul-making" business and what roles did literature play in this? What does literature teach us about its relationship to the establishment of a personnel culture that moved beyond self-help incentive-making and intensified Americans' preoccupations with personal life to turn them into personnel? How did literature contribute to the reproduction of "classless" class relations and what does this say about dress-down politics and class formation in our Second Gilded Age?

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

In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, fired from Salem's Custom House and returning to writing, reconceived his old job title, Surveyor of Customs, as his new one. Taking seriously this naming of the American author's project, Joel Pfister argues that writers from Benjamin Franklin to Louise Erdrich can be read as critical "surveyors" of customs, culture, hegemony, capitalism's emotional logic, and much else. Literary surveyors have helped make possible and can advance what we now call cultural analysis. In recent decades cultural theory and history have changed how we read literature. Literature can return the favor. America's achievement as a literary nation has contributed creatively to its accomplishment as a self-critical nation. The surveyors convened herein wrote novels, stories, plays, poetry, essays, autobiography, journals, and cultural criticism. Surveyors of Customs explores literature's insights into how America--its soft capitalism, its "democratized" inequality, its Americanization of power--"ticks." Historical--and timely--questions abound. When and why did capitalism invest in the secular "soul-making" business and what roles did literature play in this? What does literature teach us about its relationship to the establishment of a personnel culture that moved beyond self-help incentive-making and intensified Americans' preoccupations with personal life to turn them into personnel? How did literature contribute to the reproduction of "classless" class relations and what does this say about dress-down politics and class formation in our Second Gilded Age?

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book The Chemistry of Wine by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book Thriving Under Stress by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book The Compleat Conductor by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book The Nazi Connection by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book Ethnicity and Human Rights in Canada by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book The Age of Deference by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book The Design and Conduct of Meaningful Experiments Involving Human Participants by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book Developing Countries in the WTO Legal System by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book Film is Like a Battleground by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book Psychiatric Epidemiology by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book A Feminist Voyage through International Relations by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book Hard Hats, Rednecks, and Macho Men by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book A Voice From the South by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book After Khomeini by Joel Pfister
Cover of the book The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan by Joel Pfister
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