Is emotional truth a damaging literary and cultural ideal? The
Artifice of Affect proposes that valuing affective authenticity
risks creating a homogenized self, encouraged to comply only with
accepted moral beliefs. Similarly, when emotional truth is made the
primary value of literature, literary texts too often become agents
of conformity. Nowhere is this risk explored more fully than in a
range of American realist texts from the Cold War to the twentieth
century's end. For the works of writers such as James Baldwin, Saul
Bellow, John Cheever, Kathleen Collins, Paula Fox, Ralph Ellison,
or Richard Yates, formulate trenchant critiques of true feeling's
aesthetic and social imperatives. The arguments at the heart of
this book aim to re-frame emotional processes as visceral
constructions, which should not be held to the standards of static
ideals of accuracy, legitimacy, or veracity.
General
Imprint: |
Edinburgh University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Series: |
Modern American Literature and the New Twentieth Century |
Release date: |
2024 |
Authors: |
Nicholas Manning
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 138mm (L x W) |
Pages: |
288 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-399-50799-8 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-399-50799-0 |
Barcode: |
9781399507998 |
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