| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 325 pages) : illustrations |
| Series |
Cultural studies of the United States |
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Cultural studies of the United States.
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| Contents |
Scrutiny, sentiment, sensation : American modernism and the bodies of the dispossessed -- Sensational contact : William Carlos Williams's short fiction and the bodies of new immigrants -- Modernist documentary : Aaron Siskind's Harlem document -- A piece of the body torn out by the roots : James Agee, Tillie Olsen, William Faulkner, and the contingencies of working-class representation -- Monstrous modernism : laboring bodies, wounded workers, and narrative heterogeneity in Pietro di Donato's Christ in concrete -- No man's land : Richard Wright, stereotype, and the racial politics of sensational modernism |
| Summary |
Challenging the conventional wisdom that the 1930s were dominated by literary and photographic realism, Sensational Modernism uncovers a rich vein of experimental work by politically progressive artists. Examining images by photographers such as Weegee and Aaron Siskind and fiction by writers such as William Carlos Williams, Richard Wright, Tillie Olsen, and Pietro di Donato, Joseph Entin argues that these artists drew attention to the country's most vulnerable residents by using what he calls an "aesthetic of astonishment," focused on startling, graphic images of pain, injury, and prejudice. Traditional portrayals of the poor depicted stoic, passive figures of sentimental suffering or degraded but potentially threatening figures in need of supervision. Sensational modernists sought to shock middle-class audiences into new ways of seeing the nation's impoverished and outcast populations. The striking images these artists created, often taking the form of contorted or disfigured bodies drawn from the realm of the tabloids, pulp magazines, and cinema, represented a bold, experimental form of social aesthetics. Entin argues that these artists created a willfully unorthodox brand of vernacular modernism in which formal avant-garde innovations were used to delineate the conditions, contradictions, and pressures of life on the nation's fringes |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-310) and index |
| Notes |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
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Print version record |
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digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
| SUBJECT |
Weegee 1899-1968 gnd |
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Siskind, Aaron 1903-1991 gnd |
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Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld gnd |
| Subject |
American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism
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Experimental fiction, American -- History and criticism
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Art and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century
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Documentary photography -- United States -- History -- 20th century
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Mass media and art -- United States
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Modernism (Literature) -- United States
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Visual perception in literature.
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Social problems in literature.
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Poverty in literature.
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Poor in literature.
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General.
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American fiction
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Art and literature
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Documentary photography
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Experimental fiction, American
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Mass media and art
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Modernism (Literature)
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Poor in literature
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Poverty in literature
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Social problems in literature
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Visual perception in literature
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Experimentelle Prosa
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Fotografie
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Kunst
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Literatur
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United States
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USA
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2007005601 |
| ISBN |
9781469606613 |
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1469606615 |
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