Paraliterary : the making of bad readers in postwar America / Merve Emre.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Emre, Merve, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Books and reading.

Communication in international relations.

Reading--Philosophy.

Reading.

United States.

History.

Books and reading--United States--Sociological aspects.

Literature and society--United States.

Literature and society.

Communication in international relations--United States.

United States--Intellectual life--20th century.

Intellectual life.

Books and reading--Sociological aspects.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

286 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Making of Bad readers in postwar America

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Summary:

Literature departments are staffed by, and tend to be focused on turning out, "good" readers-attentive to nuance, aware of history, interested in literary texts as self-contained works. But the vast majority of readers are, to use Merve Emre's tongue-in-cheek term, "bad" readers. They read fiction and poetry to be moved, distracted, instructed, improved, engaged as citizen. How should we think about those readers, and what should we make of the structures, well outside the academy, that generate them? We should, Emre argue, think of such readers not as nonliterary but as paraliterary-thriving outside the institutions we take as central to the literary world. she traces this phenomenon to the postwar period, when literature played a key role in the rise of Americans power. At the same time as American universities were learning elsewhere to be disciplined public communications, whether in diplomatic and ambassadorial missions, private and public cultural exchange programs, multinational corporations, or global actives groups. As we grapple with literature's diminished role in the public sphere, Paraliterary suggests a new way to think about literature, its audiences, and its potential, one that looks at the civic institutions that have long engaged readers ignored by the academy. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: pop quiz

Reading as imitation

Reading as feeling

Brand reading

Sight reading

Reading like a bureaucrat

Reading like a revolutionary

Conclusion: retracing one's steps.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-277) and index.

ISBN:

9780226473970

022647397X

9780226473833

022647383X

OCLC:

975855860