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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... changes over time, itself an interesting cultural fact, but also whether thematic changes emerge across generic boundaries over the years. If this is the case, such shifts, once again, point to general cultural developments. In other words,
... shift from concern with occupational success to the personal rewards it brings. At this point, as heroes venture into the wilderness of 'success as self-fulfillment,' some continue the search for success, but less as an end in itself ...
... shifts they anatomize. All contend that a new ideology or cultural ethos and a new American character structure have emerged almost as a reflex of the new institutional order. From William Whyte, who analyzes the conformist Social Ethic ...
... shifts in American attitudes. Casual selection of evidence not only raises questions about the social critics' characterizations of contemporary American culture, but reveals assumptions that our culture is both univocal and relatively ...
... shift. Conversely, the argument that novelistic content is symptomatic of a general cultural change will be stronger if the background and intentions of the authors, the channels of production and dissemination, and the composition of ...
Inhalt
from entrepreneurial adventure | |
the varieties of selffulfillment | |
the failure of success | |
The social critics | |
Conclusion | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |