The American Counterfeit: Authenticity and Identity in American Literature and Culture (Studies in American Literary Realism & Naturalism) - Hardcover

Buch 14 von 38: Studies in American Literary Realism and Naturalism

Balkun, Mary

 
9780817314972: The American Counterfeit: Authenticity and Identity in American Literature and Culture (Studies in American Literary Realism & Naturalism)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0817314970 ISBN 13: 9780817314972
Verlag: The University of Alabama Press, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

Focusing on texts written between 1880 and 1930, Mary McAleer Balkun explores the concept of the 'counterfeit', both in terms of material goods and invented identities, and the ways that the acquisition of objects came to define individuals in American culture and literature. Counterfeiting is, in one sense, about the creation of something that appears authentic - an invented self, a museum display, a forged work of art. But the counterfeit can also be a means by which the authentic is measured, thereby creating our conception of the true or real. When counterfeiting is applied to individual identities, it fosters fluidity in social boundaries and the games of social climbing and passing that have come to be representative of American culture: the Horatio Alger story, the con man or huckster, the social climber, the ethnically ambiguous. Balkun provides new readings of traditional texts such as ""The Great Gatsby"", ""Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"", and ""The House of Mirth"", as well as readings of less-studied texts, such as Walt Whitman's ""Specimen Days"" and Nella Larsen's ""Passing"". In each of these texts, Balkun locates the presence of manufactured identities and counterfeit figures, demonstrating that where authenticity and consumerism intersect, the self becomes but another commodity to be promoted, sold, and eventually consumed.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mary McAleer Balkun is Associate Professor and Chair of English at Seton Hall University.

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Verlag
The University of Alabama Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2006
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0817314970
ISBN 13 
9780817314972
Einband
Tapa dura
Anzahl der Seiten
200
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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9780817357429: The American Counterfeit: Authenticity and Identity in American Literature and Culture (Studies in American Literary Realism and Naturalism)

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0817357424 ISBN 13:  9780817357429
Verlag: The University of Alabama Press, 2012
Softcover