The American Dream and the Popular NovelRoutledge, 23.10.2017 - 256 Seiten This title, originally published in 1985, examines conceptions of success and the good life expressed in bestselling novels – ranging from historical sagas and spy thrillers to more serious works by Updike, Bellows, Steinbeck and Mailer – published from 1945 to 1975. Using these popular books as cultural evidence, Elizabeth Long argues that the meaning of the American dream has changed dramatically, but in a more complex fashion than has been recognised by that country’s most prominent social critics. Her study presents a challenge to prevailing social-scientific views of contemporary American culture, and represents, both in theory and method, an important contribution to the study of culture and social criticism. |
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... industry sales figures exclusive of book club sales, and have attained preeminent status within the publishing industry. Because of Bowker's unofficial position as information-gatherer and arbiter of the book world (it serves libraries ...
... industrial society from earlier modes of social organization by dichotomous typological comparison. Redfield spoke of folk vs. urban society, Durkheim of mechanical vs. organic solidarity, Tönnies of Gemeinschaft vs. Gesellschaft. In ...
... industry. 1945–75. Several groups within the literary community, most notably the Authors' Guild, various independent booksellers and trade publishers, and some analysts of the publishing industry, have recently expressed great concern ...
... bestselling novels, eight for forty-one (or 73 percent), and four for thirty of the novels (or 53.6 percent).7 These numbers imply that the bestselleroriented sector of the publishing industry was not significantly more monopolistic.
... industry than ever before. Many industry analysts fear that this, in turn, has already increased the possibility of audience manipulation and lack of consumer choice, and is making books a very different cultural product than in the ...
Inhalt
from entrepreneurial adventure | |
the varieties of selffulfillment | |
the failure of success | |
The social critics | |
Conclusion | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |