Author Description
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?
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates how American literature functions as a form of cultural analysis, positioning writers as critical observers of the nation's social, political, and economic structures. Joel Pfister, a scholar of American literary history, utilizes a broad range of texts from the 18th century to the contemporary era to argue that literature provides a unique lens for understanding the development of American capitalism, class dynamics, and the formation of personal identity within a personnel-driven culture.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A historical analysis of American authors ranging from Benjamin Franklin to Louise Erdrich.
- A theoretical framework connecting literary production to the evolution of American hegemony and soft capitalism.
- Examination of diverse literary forms including novels, essays, autobiographies, and cultural criticism.
Scope Limits
- The text focuses primarily on the intersection of literature and cultural theory rather than providing a comprehensive history of American literary movements.
- It does not offer a prescriptive guide for contemporary political action but rather analyzes the historical relationship between literature and social power.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and students of American literary history frequently cite this work for its interdisciplinary approach to cultural theory. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which is designed for those familiar with critical theory and historical analysis.
Page Count:
288
Publication Date:
2015-12-28
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190276150
ISBN-13:
9780190276157
History
Academic
In literature
Literary Criticism
Sociology
American