Affect and American Literature in the Age of Neoliberalism

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Affect and American Literature in the Age of Neoliberalism
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Rachel Greenwald Smith
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:192
Dimensions(mm): Height 229,Width 150
Category/GenreLiterary studies - from c 1900 -
ISBN/Barcode 9781107479227
ClassificationsDewey:810.9355
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations 1 Tables, unspecified; 1 Plates, unspecified

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 29 July 2021
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Rachel Greenwald Smith's Affect and American Literature in the Age of Neoliberalism examines the relationship between American literature and politics in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Smith contends that the representation of emotions in contemporary fiction emphasizes the personal lives of characters at a time when there is an unprecedented, and often damaging, focus on the individual in American life. Through readings of works by Paul Auster, Karen Tei Yamashita, Ben Marcus, Lydia Millet, and others who stage experiments in the relationship between feeling and form, Smith argues for the centrality of a counter-tradition in contemporary literature concerned with impersonal feelings: feelings that challenge the neoliberal notion that emotions are the property of the self.

Author Biography

Rachel Greenwald Smith is Assistant Professor of English at Saint Louis University. Her work has appeared in such journals as American Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature, Mediations, and Modern Fiction Studies.