Reading America : citizenship, democracy, and Cold War literature / Kristin L. Matthews.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Matthews, Kristin L., 1973- author.

Series:

Studies in print culture and the history of the book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Books and reading--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Books and reading.

Literature and society--United States--History--20th century.

Literature and society.

Books and reading--Social aspects.

History.

United States.

Cold War in literature.

Cold War (1945-1989) in literature.

Politics and literature.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

Citizenship in literature.

Democracy in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 207 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Citizenship, democracy, and Cold War literature

Place of Publication:

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2016]

Summary:

"During the Cold War, the editor of Time magazine declared, "A good citizen is a good reader." As postwar euphoria faded, a wide variety of Americans turned to reading to understand their place in the changing world. Yet, what did it mean to be a good reader? And how did reading make you a good citizen? In Reading America, Kristin L. Matthews puts into conversation a range of political, educational, popular, and touchstone literary texts to demonstrate how Americans from across the political spectrum--including "great works" proponents, New Critics, civil rights leaders, postmodern theorists, neoconservatives, and multiculturalists--celebrated particular texts and advocated particular interpretive methods as they worked to make their vision of "America" a reality. She situates the fiction of J.D. Salinger, Ralph Ellison, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, and Maxine Hong Kingston within these debates, illustrating how Cold War literature was not just an object of but also a vested participant in postwar efforts to define good reading and citizenship"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Preface

Introduction: "there is much to be gained by our reading"

America reads: literacy and Cold War nationalism

Reading for character, community, and country: J.D. Salinger's The catcher in the rye

Reading to outmaneuver: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and African American

Literacy in Cold War America

Reading against the machine: Oedipa Maas and the quest for democracy in Thomas Pynchon's The crying of lot 49

Metafiction and radical democracy: getting at the heart of John Barth's Lost in the funhouse

Confronting difference, confronting difficulty: culture wars, canon wars, and Maxine Hong Kingston's The woman warrior

Conclusion: "reading makes a country great."

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781625342355

1625342357

9781625342348

1625342349

OCLC:

947146605

Publisher Number:

40026642517