1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455035303321

Autore

Balkun Mary McAleer

Titolo

The American counterfeit [[electronic resource] ] : authenticity and identity in American literature and culture / / Mary McAleer Balkun

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Tuscaloosa, : University of Alabama Press, c2006

ISBN

0-8173-8257-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (196 p.)

Collana

Studies in American literary realism and naturalism

Disciplina

810.9/353

Soggetti

American literature - 20th century - History and criticism

Counterfeits and counterfeiting in literature

American literature - 19th century - History and criticism

Authenticity (Philosophy) in literature

Impostors and imposture in literature

Identity (Psychology) in literature

Passing (Identity) in literature

Self in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-176) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The real, the self, and commodity culture, 1880-1930 -- Whitman's natural history : specimen days and the culture of authenticity -- "I couldn't see no profit in it" : discourses of commoditization and authenticity in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Connoisseurs and counterfeits : Edith Wharton's The house of mirth -- Dressing to kill : desire, race, and authenticity in Nella Larsen's Passing -- A world of wonders : collecting and the authentic self in The great Gatsby.

Sommario/riassunto

Fakery, authenticity, and identity in American literature and culture at the turn of the 20th century  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