Visions of belonging : family stories, popular culture, and postwar democracy, 1940-1960 / Judith E. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Judith E., 1948-

Series:

Popular cultures, everyday lives.

Popular cultures, everyday lives

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--United States--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

Arts, American--20th century.

Arts, American.

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

Families.

United States--Social life and customs--1918-1945.

United States.

United States--Social life and customs--1945-1970.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (481 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2004.

New York : Columbia University Press, [2004]

Language Note:

English

System Details:

text file

PDF

Summary:

Visions of Belonging explores how beloved and still-remembered family stories-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I Remember Mama, Gentleman's Agreement, Death of a Salesman, Marty, and A Raisin in the Sun-entered the popular imagination and shaped collective dreams in the postwar years and into the 1950's. These stories helped define widely shared conceptions of who counted as representative Americans and who could be recognized as belonging. The book listens in as white and black authors and directors, readers and viewers reveal divergent, emotionally textured, and politically charged social visions. Their diverse perspectives provide a point of entry into an extraordinary time when the possibilities for social transformation seemed boundless. But changes were also fiercely contested, especially as the war's culture of unity receded in the resurgence of cold war anticommunism, and demands for racial equality were met with intensifying white resistance. Judith E. Smith traces the cultural trajectory of these family stories, as they circulated widely in bestselling paperbacks, hit movies, and popular drama on stage, radio, and television. Visions of Belonging provides unusually close access to a vibrant conversation among white and black Americans about the boundaries between public life and family matters and the meanings of race and ethnicity. Would the new appearance of white working class ethnic characters expand Americans' understanding of democracy? Would these stories challenge the color line? How could these stories simultaneously show that black families belonged to the larger "family" of the nation while also representing the forms of danger and discriminations that excluded them from full citizenship? In the 1940's, war-driven challenges to racial and ethnic borderlines encouraged hesitant trespass against older notions of "normal." But by the end of the 1950's, the cold war cultural atmosphere discouraged probing of racial and social inequality and ultimately turned family stories into a comforting retreat from politics. The book crosses disciplinary boundaries, suggesting a novel method for cultural history by probing the social history of literary, dramatic, and cinematic texts. Smith's innovative use of archival research sets authorial intent next to audience reception to show how both contribute to shaping the contested meanings of American belonging.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

1. ORDINARY FAMILIES, POPULAR CULTURE, AND POPULAR DEMOCRACY, 1935-1945

LOOKING BACK STORIES

2. MAKING THE WORKING-CLASS FAMILY ORDINARY: A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN

3. HOME FRONT HARMONY AND REMEMBERING MAMA

TRADING PLACES STORIES

4. LOVING ACROSS PREWAR RACIAL AND SEXUAL BOUNDARIES

5. SEEING THROUGH JEWISHNESS

6. HOLLYWOOD MAKES RACE (IN)VISIBLE

EVERYMAN STORIES

7. COMPETING POSTWAR REPRESENTATIONS OF UNIVERSALISM

8. MARITAL REALISM AND EVERYMAN LOVE STORIES

9. RERACIALIZING THE ORDINARY AMERICAN FAMILY: RAISIN IN THE SUN

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-424) and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Digitalia, viewed February 5, 2024)

ISBN:

9781322353135

1322353131

9780231509268

023150926X

OCLC:

818857055