The merchant of modernism : the economic Jew in Anglo-American literature, 1864-1939 / Gary Martin Levine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levine, Gary Martin, 1966-

Series:

Literary criticism and cultural theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Jews in literature.

English fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

American fiction--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Modernism (Literature)--Great Britain.

Modernism (Literature).

Great Britain.

Modernism (Literature)--United States.

United States.

Economics in literature.

Merchants in literature.

Physical Description:

vii, 212 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2003.

Summary:

"The Merchant of Modernism" examines how the figure of the economic Jew symbolizes the struggle of authors from Dickens to Pound to reconcile their critique of capitalism with their own literary practices and how the shifting of the representations of this figure parallels the development of literary Modernism. From the sudden rise of the Victorian stock market to the Great Depression, the prominence of economic Jews in the writings of Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Frank Norris, Mark Twain, Henry James, Abraham Cahan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce documents major shifts and events in capitalism, their impact on literature, and advances in economic thought. "The Merchant of Modernism" provides a sophisticated analysis of the role of economic history and economic thought in shaping both literary Modernism and modern anti-Semitism.

Notes:

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 1999.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-203) and index.

ISBN:

0415941091

OCLC:

49952600