Fictions Inc. : the corporation in postmodern fiction, film, and popular culture / Ralph Clare.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clare, Ralph, 1975- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American fiction.

Capitalism in literature.

Corporations in literature.

Industries in literature.

Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--United States--Plots, themes, etc.

Postmodernism--United States--History--20th century.

Postmodernism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (261 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Corporation in postmodern fiction, film, and popular culture

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey ; London : Rutgers University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Fictions Inc. explores how depictions of the corporation in American literature, film, and popular culture have changed over time. Beginning with perhaps the most famous depiction of a corporation-Frank Norris's The Octopus-Ralph Clare traces this figure as it shifts from monster to man, from force to "individual," and from American industry to multinational "Other." Clare examines a variety of texts that span the second half of the twentieth century and beyond, including novels by Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, and Joshua Ferris; films such as Network, Ghostbusters, Gung Ho, Office Space, and Michael Clayton; and assorted artifacts of contemporary media such as television's The Office and the comic strips Life Is Hell and Dilbert. Paying particular attention to the rise of neoliberalism, the emergence of biopolitics, and the legal status of "corporate bodies," Fictions Inc. shows that representations of corporations have come to serve, whether directly or indirectly, as symbols for larger economic concerns often too vast or complex to comprehend. Whether demonized or lionized, the corporation embodies American anxieties about these current conditions and ongoing fears about the viability of a capitalist system.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: From Manchuria to Manchuria Inc.

1. California Dreaming: Twentieth-Century Corporate Fictions at the End of the Frontier

2. "Domo Arigato, Mr. Sakamoto, for the New Non-Union Contract!": (Multi)national Threats and the Decline of the American Auto Industry in Ron Howard's Gung Ho

3. Good Times, Bad Times . . . You Know I Had My Share(s): The Corporation in Five Popular Films

4. A Capital Death: Medicine, Technology, and the Care of the Self in Don DeLillo's White Noise

5. Family Incorporated: William Gaddis's J R and the Embodiment of Capitalism

6. Your Loss Is Their Gain: The Corporate Body and the Corporeal Body in Richard Powers's Gain

Conclusion: Corporate Hegemony, Cubed

Notes

Works Cited

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8135-6589-8

OCLC:

891590981