{"product_id":"literature-amusement-and-technology-in-the-great-depression-paperback-9780521120913","title":"Literature, Amusement, and Technology in the Great Depression (Paperback) 9780521120913","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eLiterature, Amusement, and Technology in the Great Depression\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis book examines the exchange between literature and recreational practices in 1930s America.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eWilliam Solomon (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780521120913, Cambridge University Press\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback, published 1 October 2009\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e284 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.42 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"Along the way Soloman recuperates the reputation of an important writer (Dahlberg), offers an illuminating reading  of Nelson Algren's novel Somebody in Boots, and meditates  on the language of James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Supplemented with extensive notes, this is a theoretically sophisticated and engagingly written analysis. Highly recommended.\"   Choice\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eLiterature, Amusement and Technology examines the exchange between literature and recreational practices in 1930s America. William Solomon argues that autobiographical writers like Edward Dahlberg and Henry Miller took aesthetic inspiration from urban manifestations of the carnival spirit: Coney Island amusement parks, burlesque, vaudeville, and the dime museum display of human oddities. More broadly, he demonstrates that the literary projects of the period pivoted around images of grotesquely disfigured bodies which appeared as part of this recreational culture. Figures of corporeal fragmentation also proved important to novelists such as Nathanael West and John Dos Passos who were concerned to resist the ideological force of  spectacular forms of mass entertainment like the World's Fairs, Hollywood film and military ceremonies. Psychic, social, aesthetic and political tensions were thus managed in Depression-era American literature in relation to communal modes of play. This study will appeal to scholars of twentieth-century American literature and culture.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eIntroduction: disfigurations\u003cbr\u003e 1. Disinterring Edward Dahlberg\u003cbr\u003e 2. Laughter and depression: Henry Miller and the emergence of the technocarnivalesque\u003cbr\u003e Intermission: vulgar Marxism\u003cbr\u003e 3. Fascism and fragmentation in Nathanael West\u003cbr\u003e 4. Militarism and mutilation in John Dos Passos\u003cbr\u003e Postface: discharges\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eSubject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [\u003ca title=\"See our other books on Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900\" href=\"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/search?q=%22Literary%20studies:%20c%201800%20to%20c%201900%20%20%5BDSBF%5D%22\"\u003eDSBF\u003c\/a\u003e]\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cambridge University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46006540730648,"sku":"9780521120913","price":33.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/2037\/5320\/products\/9780521120913i_e825b713-697a-4bda-90e0-7d0a984a2cce.jpg?v=1691371698","url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/literature-amusement-and-technology-in-the-great-depression-paperback-9780521120913","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}