LEADER 04435nam 2200745Ia 450 001 9910460404203321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-283-00895-5 010 $a9786613008954 010 $a0-231-52747-0 024 7 $a10.7312/schr15756 035 $a(CKB)2670000000079615 035 $a(EBL)908821 035 $a(OCoLC)711802189 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000484311 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12162203 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000484311 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10594604 035 $a(PQKB)11162373 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000927230 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC908821 035 $a(DE-B1597)459304 035 $a(OCoLC)979909931 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780231527477 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL908821 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10449827 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL300895 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000079615 100 $a20101006d2011 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aFantasies of the new class$b[electronic resource] $eideologies of professionalism in post-World War II American fiction /$fStephen Schryer 210 $aNew York $cColumbia University Press$d2011 215 $a1 online resource (289 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-231-15757-6 311 $a0-231-15756-8 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tCONTENTS -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tINTRODUCTION -- $t1. The Republic of Letters: THE NEW CRITICISM, HARVARD SOCIOLOGY, AND THE IDEA OF THE UNIVERSITY -- $t2. "Life Upon the Horns of the White Man's Dilemma": RALPH ELLISON, GUNNAR MYRDAL, AND THE PROJECT OF NATIONAL THERAPY -- $t3. Mary McCarthy's Field Guide to U.S. Intellectuals: TRADITION AND MODERNIZATION THEORY IN BIRDS OF AMERICA -- $t4. Saul Bellow's Class of Explaining Creatures: MR. SAMMLER ' S PLANET AND THE RISE OF NEOCONSERVATISM -- $t5. Experts Without Institutions: NEW LEFT PROFESSIONALISM IN MARGE PIERCY AND URSULA K. LE GUIN -- $t6. Don DeLillo's Academia: REVISITING THE NEW CLASS IN WHITE NOISE -- $tAfterword -- $tNotes -- $tBibliography -- $tIndex 330 $aAmerica'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. 606 $aAmerican fiction$y20th century$xHistory and criticism 606 $aSocial classes in literature 606 $aProfessional employees in literature 606 $aElite (Social sciences) in literature 606 $aProfessional employees$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aLiterature and society$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aAmerican fiction$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aSocial classes in literature. 615 0$aProfessional employees in literature. 615 0$aElite (Social sciences) in literature. 615 0$aProfessional employees$xHistory 615 0$aLiterature and society$xHistory 676 $a813/.54093552 700 $aSchryer$b Stephen$01042903 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910460404203321 996 $aFantasies of the new class$92467525 997 $aUNINA