1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910810258503321

Autore

Vials Chris

Titolo

Realism for the masses : aesthetics, popular front pluralism, and U.S. culture, 1935-1947 / / Chris Vials

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Jackson, : University Press of Mississippi, c2009

ISBN

1-282-48596-2

9786612485961

1-60473-349-7

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (275 p.)

Disciplina

973.91

Soggetti

Popular culture - United States - History - 20th century

Liberalism - United States - History - 20th century

Cultural pluralism - United States - History - 20th century

Cultural industries - United States - History - 20th century

Aesthetics, American - History - 20th century

Realism - Social aspects - United States - History - 20th century

American literature - 20th century - History and criticism

United States Civilization 1918-1945

United States Intellectual life 20th century

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. 213-223) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: The people's form finds its audience : popular front realism and the culture industries -- Taking down the Great White Hope : the popular front boxing narrative -- Radio soaps, Broadway lights : Lillian Hellman, Shirley Graham, and the interpellation of female audiences -- Realism with a little sex in it : Erskine Caldwell's challenge to Gone with the wind -- Asian yeoman and ugly Americans : Carlos Bulosan, H.T. Tsiang, and the U.S. literary market -- The popular front in the American century : Life magazine, Margaret Bourke-White, and partisan objectivity.

Sommario/riassunto

Realism for the Masses, is an exploration of how the concept of realism entered mass culture, and from there, how it tried to remake ?America.? The literary and artistic creations of American realism are generally



associated with the late nineteenth century. But this book argues that the aesthetic actually saturated American culture in the 1930's and 1940's and that the left social movements of the period were in no small part responsible. The book examines the prose of Carlos Bulosan and H. T. Tsiang; the photo essays of Margaret Bourke-White in Life magazine; the bestsellers of Erskine Caldwel