American Literary Realism And The Failed Promise Of Contract

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American Literary Realism And The Failed Promise Of Contract

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Author : Brook Thomas
language : en
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Release Date : 2023-04-28

American Literary Realism And The Failed Promise Of Contract written by Brook Thomas and has been published by Univ of California Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-04-28 with Literary Criticism categories.

In American Literary Realism and the Failed Promise of Contract, the author explores the interplay between contract law and literary realism in late nineteenth-century America, a time when both contract law and realism shaped cultural, legal, and social landscapes. The text argues that while contract law in theory emphasized the freedom to negotiate obligations among individuals, it fell short in practice by failing to dismantle deeply entrenched inequalities associated with race, class, and gender. The era’s literature mirrored this dynamic, as authors highlighted the gap between the idealized promises of contractual freedom and the enduring constraints of status. Through this lens, literary realism not only reflected society’s inequities but also critiqued the legal and social systems that perpetuated them. Realism, which sought to represent everyday life in a grounded, unembellished way, intersected with the contract’s promise by portraying social relations as complex and negotiated, yet constrained by systemic hierarchies. Works like Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and James’s The American evoke moments where relationships of status could theoretically transform into equitable, "contractual" interactions. However, these fictional moments of promise often falter, reflecting contract's inability to establish a truly egalitarian social order. The rise of corporate capitalism further complicated contract’s promise, as corporations fostered a form of economic structure that subordinated individual agency, reinforcing rather than alleviating social inequities. The text also considers how these issues resonate today, especially as contractual ideals influence contemporary notions of social justice. While the promise of contract continues to appeal to a vision of equal opportunity, the persistent influence of race, class, and gender hierarchies complicates its realization. The author suggests that revisiting works of realism offers valuable insights into these ongoing tensions, challenging readers to reimagine a society where individuals might genuinely be “free and equal,” not just in theory but in practice. In doing so, this book presents realism not as an endorsement of the status quo but as a field of critical inquiry, urging us to address the unresolved questions about equity that persist in American society. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.

American Literary Realism And The Failed Promise Of Contract

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Author : Brook Thomas
language : en
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Release Date : 1997-01-01

American Literary Realism And The Failed Promise Of Contract written by Brook Thomas and has been published by Univ of California Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1997-01-01 with Fiction categories.

"Moving expertly from legal analysis to social history to profoundly recontextualized literary critique, Thomas shows how writers like Twain, James, Howells, and Chopin took up contract as a model, formally and thematically evoking its possibilities and dramatizing its failures.

American Literary Realism Critical Theory And Intellectual Prestige 1880 1995

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Author : Phillip Barrish
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2001-02-19

American Literary Realism Critical Theory And Intellectual Prestige 1880 1995 written by Phillip Barrish and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2001-02-19 with Literary Criticism categories.

Focusing on key works of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literary realism, Phillip Barrish traces the emergence of new ways of gaining intellectual prestige - that is, new ways of gaining cultural recognition as unusually intelligent, sensitive or even wise. Through extended readings of works by Henry James, William Dean Howells, Abraham Cahan and Edith Wharton, Barrish emphasises the differences between literary realist modes of intellectual and cultural authority and those associated with the rise of the social sciences. In doing so, he greatly refines our understanding of the complex relationship between realist writing and masculinity. Barrish further argues that understanding the dynamics of intellectual status in realist literature provides new analytic purchase on intellectual prestige in recent critical theory. Here he focuses on such figures as Lionel Trilling, Paul de Man, John Guillory and Judith Butler.

The Oxford Handbook Of American Literary Realism

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Author : Keith Newlin
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2019-08-01

The Oxford Handbook Of American Literary Realism written by Keith Newlin and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-08-01 with Literary Criticism categories.

The scholarship devoted to American literary realism has long wrestled with problems of definition: is realism a genre, with a particular form, content, and technique? Is it a style, with a distinctive artistic arrangement of words, characters, and description? Or is it a period, usually placed as occurring after the Civil War and concluding somewhere around the onset of World War I? This volume aims to widen the scope of study beyond mere definition, however, by expanding the boundaries of the subject through essays that reconsider and enlarge upon such questions. The Oxford Handbook of American Literary Realism aims to take stock of the scholarly work in the area and map out paths for future directions of study. The Handbook offers 35 vibrant and original essays of new interpretations of the artistic and political challenges of representing life. It is the first book to treat the subject topically and thematically, in wide scope, with essays that draw upon recent scholarship in literary and cultural studies to offer an authoritative and in-depth reassessment of major and minor figures and the contexts that shaped their work. Contributors here tease out the workings of a particular concept through a variety of authors and their cultural contexts. A set of essays explores realism's genesis and its connection to previous and subsequent movements. Others examine the inclusiveness of representation, the circulation of texts, and the aesthetic representation of science, time, space, and the subjects of medicine, the New Woman, and the middle class. Still others trace the connection to other arts--poetry, drama, illustration, photography, painting, and film--and to pedagogic issues in the teaching of realism. As a whole, this volume forges exciting new paths in the study of realism and writers' unending labor to represent life accurately.

The Poetics Of Sovereignty In American Literature 1885 1910

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Author : Andrew Hebard
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2013

The Poetics Of Sovereignty In American Literature 1885 1910 written by Andrew Hebard and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2013 with History categories.

The book examines trends in American literature and sheds new light on the legal history of race relations during the Progressive Era.

A Companion To American Fiction 1865 1914

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Author : Robert Paul Lamb
language : en
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date : 2008-04-15

A Companion To American Fiction 1865 1914 written by Robert Paul Lamb and has been published by John Wiley & Sons this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-04-15 with Literary Criticism categories.

A Companion to American Fiction, 1865-1914 is a groundbreaking collection of essays written by leading critics for a wide audience of scholars, students, and interested general readers. An exceptionally broad-ranging and accessible Companion to the study of American fiction of the post-civil war period and the early twentieth century Brings together 29 essays by top scholars, each of which presents a synthesis of the best research and offers an original perspective Divided into sections on historical traditions and genres, contexts and themes, and major authors Covers a mixture of canonical and the non-canonical themes, authors, literatures, and critical approaches Explores innovative topics, such as ecological literature and ecocriticism, children’s literature, and the influence of Darwin on fiction

Realist Poetics In American Culture 1866 1900

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Author : Elizabeth Renker
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2018

Realist Poetics In American Culture 1866 1900 written by Elizabeth Renker and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2018 with Literary Criticism categories.

Examines the works of a diverse range of realist poets to redefine the significance of poetry to the genre of realism during the postbellum period in American literature.

Language Gender And Citizenship In American Literature 1789 1919

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Author :
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date :

Language Gender And Citizenship In American Literature 1789 1919 written by and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on with categories.

Traces Of Gold

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Author : Nicolas S. Witschi
language : en
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Release Date : 2002

Traces Of Gold written by Nicolas S. Witschi and has been published by University of Alabama Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2002 with Literary Collections categories.

"With its forays into ecocriticism and cultural studies and the welcome inclusion of Western genre writing in a serious study of American literary history, Traces of Gold will appeal to students and scholars of American literature, American studies, and western history."--BOOK JACKET.

Language Gender And Citizenship In American Literature 1789 1919

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Author : Amy Dunham Strand
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2008-08-27

Language Gender And Citizenship In American Literature 1789 1919 written by Amy Dunham Strand and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-08-27 with History categories.

Examining language debates and literary texts from Noah Webster to H.L. Mencken and from Washington Irving to Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this book demonstrates how gender arose in passionate discussions about language to address concerns about national identity and national citizenship elicited by 19th-century sociopolitical transformations. Together with popular commentary about language in Congressional records, periodicals, grammar books, etiquette manuals, and educational materials, literary products tell stories about how gendered discussions of language worked to deflect nationally divisive debates over Indian Removal and slavery, to stabilize mid-19th-century sociopolitical mobility, to illuminate the logic of Jim Crow, and to temper the rise of "New Women" and "New Immigrants" at the end and turn of the 19th century. Strand enhances our understandings of how ideologies of language, gender, and nation have been interarticulated in American history and culture and how American literature has been entwined in their construction, reflection, and dissemination.