04389nam 2200733Ia 450 991078981980332120230126204702.01-283-00895-597866130089540-231-52747-010.7312/schr15756(CKB)2670000000079615(EBL)908821(OCoLC)711802189(SSID)ssj0000484311(PQKBManifestationID)12162203(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000484311(PQKBWorkID)10594604(PQKB)11162373(StDuBDS)EDZ0000927230(MiAaPQ)EBC908821(DE-B1597)459304(OCoLC)979909931(DE-B1597)9780231527477(Au-PeEL)EBL908821(CaPaEBR)ebr10449827(CaONFJC)MIL300895(EXLCZ)99267000000007961520101006d2011 uy 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrFantasies of the new class[electronic resource] ideologies of professionalism in post-World War II American fiction /Stephen SchryerNew York Columbia University Press20111 online resource (289 p.)Description based upon print version of record.0-231-15757-6 0-231-15756-8 Includes bibliographical references and index.Front matter --CONTENTS --Acknowledgments --INTRODUCTION --1. The Republic of Letters: THE NEW CRITICISM, HARVARD SOCIOLOGY, AND THE IDEA OF THE UNIVERSITY --2. "Life Upon the Horns of the White Man's Dilemma": RALPH ELLISON, GUNNAR MYRDAL, AND THE PROJECT OF NATIONAL THERAPY --3. Mary McCarthy's Field Guide to U.S. Intellectuals: TRADITION AND MODERNIZATION THEORY IN BIRDS OF AMERICA --4. Saul Bellow's Class of Explaining Creatures: MR. SAMMLER ' S PLANET AND THE RISE OF NEOCONSERVATISM --5. Experts Without Institutions: NEW LEFT PROFESSIONALISM IN MARGE PIERCY AND URSULA K. LE GUIN --6. Don DeLillo's Academia: REVISITING THE NEW CLASS IN WHITE NOISE --Afterword --Notes --Bibliography --IndexAmerica's post-World War II prosperity created a boom in higher education, expanding the number of university-educated readers and making a new literary politics possible. Writers began to direct their work toward the growing professional class, and the American public in turn became more open to literary culture. This relationship imbued fiction with a new social and cultural import, allowing authors to envision themselves as unique cultural educators. It also changed the nature of literary representation: writers came to depict social reality as a tissue of ideas produced by knowledge elites.Linking literary and historical trends, Stephen Schryer underscores the exalted fantasies that arose from postwar American writers' new sense of their cultural mission. Hoping to transform capitalism from within, writers and critics tried to cultivate aesthetically attuned professionals who could disrupt the narrow materialism of the bourgeoisie. Reading Don DeLillo, Marge Piercy, Mary McCarthy, Saul Bellow, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ralph Ellison, and Lionel Trilling, among others, Schryer unravels the postwar idea of American literature as a vehicle for instruction, while highlighting both the promise and flaws inherent in this vision.American fiction20th centuryHistory and criticismSocial classes in literatureProfessional employees in literatureElite (Social sciences) in literatureProfessional employeesUnited StatesHistory20th centuryLiterature and societyUnited StatesHistory20th centuryAmerican fictionHistory and criticism.Social classes in literature.Professional employees in literature.Elite (Social sciences) in literature.Professional employeesHistoryLiterature and societyHistory813/.54093552Schryer Stephen1471980MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910789819803321Fantasies of the new class3684557UNINA