Edith Wharton and the politics of race / / by Jennie A. Kassanoff [[electronic resource]]

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910457916403321
• Autore: Kassanoff Jennie Ann
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2004
• ISBN: 1-107-16053-7; 1-280-70303-2; 0-511-23087-7; 0-511-23164-4; 0-511-22925-9; 0-511-33157-6; 0-511-48555-7; 0-511-23009-5
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xii, 226 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Collana: Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; ; 143
• Disciplina: 813/.52
• Soggetti: Politics and literature - United States - History - 20th century; Race relations in literature; Immigrants in literature; Race in literature
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-213) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Invaders and Aborigines : playing Indian in the land of letters -- "The real Lily Bart" : staging race in The house of mirth -- "A close corporation" : the body and the machine in The fruit of the tree -- The age of experience : pragmatism, the Titanic and The reef -- Charity begins at home : Summer and the erotic tourist -- ; Coda : The age of innocence and the Cesnola controversy.
• Sommario/riassunto: Edith Wharton feared that the 'ill-bred', foreign and poor would overwhelm what was known as the American native elite. Drawing on a range of turn-of-the-century social documents, unpublished archival material and Wharton's major novels, Jennie Kassanoff argues that a fuller appreciation of American culture and democracy becomes available through a sustained engagement with these controversial ; views. She pursues her theme through Wharton's spirited participation in a variety of turn-of-the-century discourses - from euthanasia and tourism to pragmatism and Native Americans - to produce a truly interdisciplinary study of this major American writer. Kassanoff locates Wharton squarely in the middle of the debates on race, class and democratic pluralism at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on diverse cultural materials, she offers close interdisciplinary readings that will be of interest to scholars of American literature and culture.