Democracy's children : intellectuals and the rise of cultural politics / John McGowan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McGowan, John, 1953- author.

Contributor:

en Book Program, funder.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Criticism--History--20th century.

Criticism.

Criticism--Political aspects--History--20th century.

College teaching--United States.

College teaching.

Intellectual life--History--20th century.

Intellectual life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (243 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, New York ; London, [England] : Cornell University Press, 2002.

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

John McGowan is John W. and Anna H. Hanes Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Postmodernism and its Critics, also from Cornell University Press, and Representation and Revelation: Victorian Realism from Carlyle to Yeats.

Summary:

How do American intellectuals try to achieve their political and social goals? By what means do they articulate their hopes for change? John McGowan seeks to identify the goals and strategies of contemporary humanistic intellectuals who strive to shape the politics and culture of their time. In a lively mix of personal reflection and shrewd analysis, McGowan visits the sites of intellectual activity (scholarly publications, professional conferences, the classroom, and the university) and considers the hazards of working within such institutional contexts to effect change outside the academy. Democracy's Children considers the historical trajectory that produced current intellectual practices. McGowan links the growing prestige of "culture" since 1800 to the growth of democracy and the obsession with modernity and explores how intellectuals became both custodians and creators of culture. Caught between fears of culture's irrelevance and dreams of its omnipotence, intellectuals pursue a cultural politics that aims for wide-ranging social transformations. For better or worse, McGowan says, the humanities are now tied to culture and to the university. The opportunities and frustrations attendant on this partnership resonate with the larger successes and failures of contemporary democratic societies. His purpose in this collection of essays is to illuminate the conditions under which intellectuals in a democracy work and at the same time to promote intellectual activities that further democratic ideals.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Preface, vii

Introduction: Literary Intellectuals in

and for a Democratic Society,

I. CLIMBING THE WALLS: THE INTELLECTUAL AS ACADEMIC

I. At the 1986 MLA Convention, 31

2. Teaching Literature: Where, How, and Why, 49

3. An ABCs of Post-Theoretical Style, 74

4. Humanists, Cultural Authority, and the University, 114

II. ROADS TO THE PRESENT, PATHS TO A FUTURE

5. Modernity and Culture:

The Victorians and Cultural Studies, 141

6. The Narrative of Culture: A Burkean Perspective, 165

7. Toward a Pragmatist Pluralism, 201

References, 231

Index, 239.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print record.

ISBN:

9781501728075

1501728075

9780801487668

0801487668

9781501720963

1501720961

OCLC:

1031885542

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access