In this important interdisciplinary study, Clare Eby argues that
the writings of Theodore Dreiser and Thorstein Veblen form a
neglected chapter in the history of United States cultural
criticism that is especially relevant today.
This study leaves behind the narrow frameworks through which
most of Veblen's and Dreiser's writings have been interpreted,
covering a wide range of both authors' major and minor works.
Moving beyond Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class" and
Dreiser's "Sister Carrie, " Eby shows how the two writers, as
saboteurs of the status quo, anticipated many preoccupations of
cultural critics today: the cultural role of the intellectual, the
relationship of science to society, the place of consumption in
modern life, and the intersection of class, gender, and power.
Eby uses cultural criticism as a unifying concept that shows how
Veblen fuses satire, sociology, economics, history, psychology,
anthropology, political science, and philosophy; and how Dreiser
connects fiction, travelogue, literary manifesto, occasional essay,
autobiography, biography, and philosophy. By reading Veblen through
Dreiser, and Dreiser through Veblen, Eby illustrates the striking
parallels between their works, demonstrating how literature and
social science can merge in cultural criticism.
Although Dreiser's interest in the natural and social sciences
has often been noted, this study provides the only extended
analysis of how his works actually resemble, and strive to become,
critically informed social science. Similarly, despite the
singularity of Veblen's rhetoric, the centrality of literary
devices to his works has never been systematically examined. By
placing the works of Veblen and Dreiser into dialogue, this study
contributes significantly to the recent attempts to bring together
the concerns of literary analysts and social scientists.
"Dreiser and Veblen, Saboteurs of the Status Quo" makes an
important contribution not only to Dreiser and Veblen studies but
also to cultural criticism itself.
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