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Sacramental shopping : Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, and the spirit of modern consumerism / Sarah Way Sherman.
Van Pelt Library PS1017.L53 S54 2013
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Sherman, Sarah Way.
- Series:
- Becoming modern
- Becoming modern : new nineteenth-century studies
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888. Little women.
- Alcott, Louisa May.
- Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937. House of mirth.
- Wharton, Edith.
- Consumption (Economics) in literature.
- Civilization, Modern, in literature.
- American fiction--19th century--History and criticism.
- American fiction.
- American fiction--Women authors--History and criticism.
- American fiction--Women authors.
- Physical Description:
- xiii, 316 pages ; 25 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Durham, New Hampshire : University of New Hampshire Press, [2013]
- Summary:
- Written a generation apart and rarely treated together by scholars, Little Women (1868) and The House of Mirth (1905) share a deep concern with materialism, moral development, and self-construction. The heroines in both grapple with conspicuous consumption, an aspect of modernity that challenges older beliefs about ethical behavior and core identity. Placing both novels at the historical intersection of modern consumer culture and older religious discourse on materialism and identity, Sarah Way Sherman analyzes how Alcott and Wharton rework traditional Protestant discourse to interpret their heroines' struggle with modern consumerism. Her conclusion reveals how Little Women's optimism, still buoyed by otherworldly justice, providential interventions, and the notion of essential identity, ultimately gives way to the much darker vision of modern materialistic culture in The House of Mirth. Book jacket.
- Contents:
- Raising virtuous shoppers: Little Women and the marketplace of morality
- Lily Bart and the pursuit of happiness
- Lily at the crossroads: Vanity Fair versus The republic of the spirit
- Smart Jews and failed Protestants
- Lily in the valley of the shadow.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9781611684223
- 1611684226
- 9781611684377
- 1611684374
- OCLC:
- 818143830
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