S. J. Connolly
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199543472
- eISBN:
- 9780191716553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199543472.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter provides a description of the death of Cormac McCarthy, Viscount Muskerry, at the naval battle off Lowestock in 1665 and introduces the book's central themes: the radical changes in ...
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This chapter provides a description of the death of Cormac McCarthy, Viscount Muskerry, at the naval battle off Lowestock in 1665 and introduces the book's central themes: the radical changes in political and cultural identity and allegiance that took place across time in early modern Ireland, and the inadequacy of narrow or deterministic ethnic or confessional labels.Less
This chapter provides a description of the death of Cormac McCarthy, Viscount Muskerry, at the naval battle off Lowestock in 1665 and introduces the book's central themes: the radical changes in political and cultural identity and allegiance that took place across time in early modern Ireland, and the inadequacy of narrow or deterministic ethnic or confessional labels.
Brent Waters
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199271962
- eISBN:
- 9780191709883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199271962.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines three theological responses to the late liberal accounts of the family depicted in the preceding chapter. The first response, as seen in the works of James Nelson and Adrian ...
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This chapter examines three theological responses to the late liberal accounts of the family depicted in the preceding chapter. The first response, as seen in the works of James Nelson and Adrian Thatcher, attempts to reformulate Christian teaching on marriage and family in light of key liberal claims regarding individual fulfilment. The second response resists any changes suggested by late liberalism as reflected in the works of John Paul II and Germain Grisez. The third response, represented by such authors as Don Browning, Rodney Clapp, and David Matzko McCarthy, critically adapts selected liberal tenets — such as mutuality and reciprocity — while preserving key theological teachings on marriage and family. In each of these responses, the moral and religious significance of the relation between singleness and marriage emerges as a major theme.Less
This chapter examines three theological responses to the late liberal accounts of the family depicted in the preceding chapter. The first response, as seen in the works of James Nelson and Adrian Thatcher, attempts to reformulate Christian teaching on marriage and family in light of key liberal claims regarding individual fulfilment. The second response resists any changes suggested by late liberalism as reflected in the works of John Paul II and Germain Grisez. The third response, represented by such authors as Don Browning, Rodney Clapp, and David Matzko McCarthy, critically adapts selected liberal tenets — such as mutuality and reciprocity — while preserving key theological teachings on marriage and family. In each of these responses, the moral and religious significance of the relation between singleness and marriage emerges as a major theme.
Richard M. Fried
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195043617
- eISBN:
- 9780199853724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195043617.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
For many, the McCarthy era stands as the grimmest time in recent memory. Beset by Cold War anxieties, Americans developed an obsession with domestic communism that outran the actual threat and gnawed ...
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For many, the McCarthy era stands as the grimmest time in recent memory. Beset by Cold War anxieties, Americans developed an obsession with domestic communism that outran the actual threat and gnawed at the tissue of civil liberties. For some politicians, hunting Reds became a passport to fame or notoriety. It was the focal point of the careers of Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy; of Richard Nixon during his tenure as Congressman, Senator, and Vice President of the United States; and several of Nixon's colleagues on the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Ordinary people responded to the anti-Communist fervor by reining in their political activities, curbing their talk, and keeping their thoughts to themselves. Perhaps the essential point is that there existed in Cold War America a broad anti-Communist consensus shared and seldom questioned by most liberals as well as conservatives, by intellectuals as well as plain folk.Less
For many, the McCarthy era stands as the grimmest time in recent memory. Beset by Cold War anxieties, Americans developed an obsession with domestic communism that outran the actual threat and gnawed at the tissue of civil liberties. For some politicians, hunting Reds became a passport to fame or notoriety. It was the focal point of the careers of Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy; of Richard Nixon during his tenure as Congressman, Senator, and Vice President of the United States; and several of Nixon's colleagues on the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Ordinary people responded to the anti-Communist fervor by reining in their political activities, curbing their talk, and keeping their thoughts to themselves. Perhaps the essential point is that there existed in Cold War America a broad anti-Communist consensus shared and seldom questioned by most liberals as well as conservatives, by intellectuals as well as plain folk.
Richard M. Fried
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195043617
- eISBN:
- 9780199853724
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195043617.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book provides an account of the rise and fall of the House Committee on Un-American activities. The book describes the growth of the kind of paranoid and xenophobic anti-communism which ...
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This book provides an account of the rise and fall of the House Committee on Un-American activities. The book describes the growth of the kind of paranoid and xenophobic anti-communism which characterized the HUAC and traces its origins from the New Deal to the post-war periods. Along the way we meet important actors in the Red-baiting drama, including Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, the young Richard Nixon, Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood Ten, and, of course, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. The book, however, also documents the more sweeping and less public effects of McCarthyism on thousands of people, from teachers and lawyers to washroom attendants forced to take loyalty tests. As the book shows, these “insignificant” stories are perhaps the strongest testament to the social and political climate which terrorized many ordinary citizens during the McCarthy years.Less
This book provides an account of the rise and fall of the House Committee on Un-American activities. The book describes the growth of the kind of paranoid and xenophobic anti-communism which characterized the HUAC and traces its origins from the New Deal to the post-war periods. Along the way we meet important actors in the Red-baiting drama, including Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, the young Richard Nixon, Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood Ten, and, of course, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. The book, however, also documents the more sweeping and less public effects of McCarthyism on thousands of people, from teachers and lawyers to washroom attendants forced to take loyalty tests. As the book shows, these “insignificant” stories are perhaps the strongest testament to the social and political climate which terrorized many ordinary citizens during the McCarthy years.
Steven Casey
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195306927
- eISBN:
- 9780199867936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306927.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
As news of battlefield defeats hit home, the administration tried to channel the public debate on how America ought to mobilize in this new, more dangerous phase of the Cold War. The instinct of ...
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As news of battlefield defeats hit home, the administration tried to channel the public debate on how America ought to mobilize in this new, more dangerous phase of the Cold War. The instinct of Truman and his senior advisers was to remain cautious: they were still keen to stop the domestic mood from overheating, lest this result in overpowering demands to escalate the Cold War, perhaps even by launching a preventive strike against the Soviet Union. But, once again, this low‐key public posture provided Republicans with the opportunity to sharpen their political attacks. Some called for more vigorous mobilization efforts. Others pressed for a stronger stance toward communists inside America. With senior officials in the Pentagon also hinting that they favored a tougher Cold War posture, in August and September Truman moved to regain control of the debate.Less
As news of battlefield defeats hit home, the administration tried to channel the public debate on how America ought to mobilize in this new, more dangerous phase of the Cold War. The instinct of Truman and his senior advisers was to remain cautious: they were still keen to stop the domestic mood from overheating, lest this result in overpowering demands to escalate the Cold War, perhaps even by launching a preventive strike against the Soviet Union. But, once again, this low‐key public posture provided Republicans with the opportunity to sharpen their political attacks. Some called for more vigorous mobilization efforts. Others pressed for a stronger stance toward communists inside America. With senior officials in the Pentagon also hinting that they favored a tougher Cold War posture, in August and September Truman moved to regain control of the debate.
Richard M. Fried
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195043617
- eISBN:
- 9780199853724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195043617.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The United States entered the postwar, post-FDR era with a recent history of rough political rhetoric. It had also established a tradition of basing fitness for a government job on the holder's ...
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The United States entered the postwar, post-FDR era with a recent history of rough political rhetoric. It had also established a tradition of basing fitness for a government job on the holder's “loyalty”. Much of the machinery and the discourse of “McCarthyism” was in place before the Cold War or McCarthy's advent. The main impetus behind this development came from conservatives of both parties, but especially Republicans, who deplored the New Deal and the changes it brought to American life. Yet to some extent, the conservative's targets shared their language and methodology. Liberals had accepted the notion of the “fifth column.” They usually dreaded its entrance from the Right—Nazis, Fascists, and their isolationist allies. The trials of the McCarthy era were aggravated by the fact that so few of the participants entered them with hands entirely clean.Less
The United States entered the postwar, post-FDR era with a recent history of rough political rhetoric. It had also established a tradition of basing fitness for a government job on the holder's “loyalty”. Much of the machinery and the discourse of “McCarthyism” was in place before the Cold War or McCarthy's advent. The main impetus behind this development came from conservatives of both parties, but especially Republicans, who deplored the New Deal and the changes it brought to American life. Yet to some extent, the conservative's targets shared their language and methodology. Liberals had accepted the notion of the “fifth column.” They usually dreaded its entrance from the Right—Nazis, Fascists, and their isolationist allies. The trials of the McCarthy era were aggravated by the fact that so few of the participants entered them with hands entirely clean.
Richard M. Fried
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195043617
- eISBN:
- 9780199853724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195043617.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In 1949, anti-communism planted itself squarely in the nation's political consciousness. Important groups like the CIO and influential educators closed ranks against Communists, politicians continued ...
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In 1949, anti-communism planted itself squarely in the nation's political consciousness. Important groups like the CIO and influential educators closed ranks against Communists, politicians continued to hunt Reds, and front-page trials stamped judicial disapproval on communism. Advocates of peace, civil rights, and other causes had the growing burden of proving that they were not acting as “fronts” for communism. To be leftist was to be suspect. The period 1949–54 marked the nadir of civil liberties during the Cold War. Not coincidentally, these years bracketed the Korean War, which produced a military stalemate that chafed steadily at the American temper. Joseph R. McCarthy, gave his name to the era. However, the anxieties of the Cold War, culminating in the Korean crisis, and the pressures building at all levels of politics would guarantee that this period—with or without McCarthy—would be a grim one.Less
In 1949, anti-communism planted itself squarely in the nation's political consciousness. Important groups like the CIO and influential educators closed ranks against Communists, politicians continued to hunt Reds, and front-page trials stamped judicial disapproval on communism. Advocates of peace, civil rights, and other causes had the growing burden of proving that they were not acting as “fronts” for communism. To be leftist was to be suspect. The period 1949–54 marked the nadir of civil liberties during the Cold War. Not coincidentally, these years bracketed the Korean War, which produced a military stalemate that chafed steadily at the American temper. Joseph R. McCarthy, gave his name to the era. However, the anxieties of the Cold War, culminating in the Korean crisis, and the pressures building at all levels of politics would guarantee that this period—with or without McCarthy—would be a grim one.
Richard M. Fried
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195043617
- eISBN:
- 9780199853724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195043617.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
February 1950 was Joseph R. McCarthy's moment. On February 6, Republican leaders issued a campaign tract scoring the Democrats for tolerating disloyalty in government and the theft of vital secrets. ...
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February 1950 was Joseph R. McCarthy's moment. On February 6, Republican leaders issued a campaign tract scoring the Democrats for tolerating disloyalty in government and the theft of vital secrets. He was needed to put the anti-Red crusade into high gear, ready to commit himself with reckless, career-dominating totality to the Communist issue. His February 9 speech at a Lincoln Day celebration in Wheeling, West Virginia, allegedly marked his first speculation in anti-communism. As long as it lasted, the Korean War ensured the persistence of the politics of disloyalty on which McCarthy thrived. The passage of Eisenhower's election as president meant that McCarthy's days were numbered. His physical decline was accelerated by an emotional one, closely linked to his political fall. He felt betrayed by former friends like Richard Nixon. He was also swiped by a changing political context with some easing of Cold War tensions.Less
February 1950 was Joseph R. McCarthy's moment. On February 6, Republican leaders issued a campaign tract scoring the Democrats for tolerating disloyalty in government and the theft of vital secrets. He was needed to put the anti-Red crusade into high gear, ready to commit himself with reckless, career-dominating totality to the Communist issue. His February 9 speech at a Lincoln Day celebration in Wheeling, West Virginia, allegedly marked his first speculation in anti-communism. As long as it lasted, the Korean War ensured the persistence of the politics of disloyalty on which McCarthy thrived. The passage of Eisenhower's election as president meant that McCarthy's days were numbered. His physical decline was accelerated by an emotional one, closely linked to his political fall. He felt betrayed by former friends like Richard Nixon. He was also swiped by a changing political context with some easing of Cold War tensions.
Richard M. Fried
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195043617
- eISBN:
- 9780199853724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195043617.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In 1954, several developments combined to check the momentum of anti-Communist extremism. McCarthy's censure by the Senate was both a sign of and force for change. In the next three years, the ...
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In 1954, several developments combined to check the momentum of anti-Communist extremism. McCarthy's censure by the Senate was both a sign of and force for change. In the next three years, the atmosphere of the McCarthy era would dissipate. Many institutional underpinnings of the Red Scare endured, but the change was nonetheless profound. About a year into Eisenhower's first term, the loyalty-security apparatus began to attract rising criticism. Previously, publicity had nourished Red-hunters like McCarthy; now it operated to highlight the system's harshness and to discredit, if not the premise of anti-communism, at least the methods by which it was enforced. Potent social forces of the 1950s as consumerism and suburbanization may in some ways have helped cool the fever of McCarthyism.Less
In 1954, several developments combined to check the momentum of anti-Communist extremism. McCarthy's censure by the Senate was both a sign of and force for change. In the next three years, the atmosphere of the McCarthy era would dissipate. Many institutional underpinnings of the Red Scare endured, but the change was nonetheless profound. About a year into Eisenhower's first term, the loyalty-security apparatus began to attract rising criticism. Previously, publicity had nourished Red-hunters like McCarthy; now it operated to highlight the system's harshness and to discredit, if not the premise of anti-communism, at least the methods by which it was enforced. Potent social forces of the 1950s as consumerism and suburbanization may in some ways have helped cool the fever of McCarthyism.
Robert M. Lichtman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037009
- eISBN:
- 9780252094125
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037009.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This book provides a comprehensive history of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in “Communist” cases during the McCarthy era. The book shows the Court’s vulnerability to public criticism and attacks ...
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This book provides a comprehensive history of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in “Communist” cases during the McCarthy era. The book shows the Court’s vulnerability to public criticism and attacks by the elected branches during periods of political repression. The book describes every Communist-related decision of the era (none is omitted), placing them in the context of political events and revealing the range and intrusiveness of McCarthy-era repression. Demonstrating keen insight into the Supreme Court’s inner workings and making extensive use of the justices’ papers, the book examines the dynamics of the Court’s changes in direction and the relationships and rivalries among its justices, including such towering figures as Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, Earl Warren, William O. Douglas, and William J. Brennan, Jr.Less
This book provides a comprehensive history of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in “Communist” cases during the McCarthy era. The book shows the Court’s vulnerability to public criticism and attacks by the elected branches during periods of political repression. The book describes every Communist-related decision of the era (none is omitted), placing them in the context of political events and revealing the range and intrusiveness of McCarthy-era repression. Demonstrating keen insight into the Supreme Court’s inner workings and making extensive use of the justices’ papers, the book examines the dynamics of the Court’s changes in direction and the relationships and rivalries among its justices, including such towering figures as Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, Earl Warren, William O. Douglas, and William J. Brennan, Jr.
Sarah Daw
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474430029
- eISBN:
- 9781474453783
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474430029.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
Writing Nature is the first full-length ecocritical study of Cold War American literature. The book analyses the function and representation of Nature in a wide range of Cold War texts, and reveals ...
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Writing Nature is the first full-length ecocritical study of Cold War American literature. The book analyses the function and representation of Nature in a wide range of Cold War texts, and reveals the prevalence of portrayals of Nature as an infinite, interdependent ecological system in American literature written between 1945 and 1971. It also highlights the Cold War’s often overlooked role in environmental history, and argues for the repositioning of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) within what is shown to be a developing trend of ecological presentations of Nature in literature written after 1945. Ecocritical analysis is combined with historicist research to expose the unacknowledged role of a globally diverse range of non-Western and non-Anglocentric philosophies in shaping Cold War writers’ ecological presentations of Nature, including Sufism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism. The book contains chapters on J. D. Salinger, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles and Mary McCarthy. It also introduces the regional writer Peggy Pond Church, exploring the synergies between the depictions of Nature in her writings and in those of her neighbour and correspondent, the atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The place and function of Nature in each writer’s work is assessed in relation to the most recent developments in the field of ecocriticism, and each of the book’s six author case studies is investigated through a combination of textual analysis and detailed archival and historicist research.Less
Writing Nature is the first full-length ecocritical study of Cold War American literature. The book analyses the function and representation of Nature in a wide range of Cold War texts, and reveals the prevalence of portrayals of Nature as an infinite, interdependent ecological system in American literature written between 1945 and 1971. It also highlights the Cold War’s often overlooked role in environmental history, and argues for the repositioning of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) within what is shown to be a developing trend of ecological presentations of Nature in literature written after 1945. Ecocritical analysis is combined with historicist research to expose the unacknowledged role of a globally diverse range of non-Western and non-Anglocentric philosophies in shaping Cold War writers’ ecological presentations of Nature, including Sufism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism. The book contains chapters on J. D. Salinger, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles and Mary McCarthy. It also introduces the regional writer Peggy Pond Church, exploring the synergies between the depictions of Nature in her writings and in those of her neighbour and correspondent, the atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The place and function of Nature in each writer’s work is assessed in relation to the most recent developments in the field of ecocriticism, and each of the book’s six author case studies is investigated through a combination of textual analysis and detailed archival and historicist research.
Vera M. Kutzinski
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451157
- eISBN:
- 9780801466250
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451157.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
The poet Langston Hughes was a tireless world traveler and a prolific translator, editor, and marketer. Translations of his own writings traveled even more widely than he did, earning him adulation ...
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The poet Langston Hughes was a tireless world traveler and a prolific translator, editor, and marketer. Translations of his own writings traveled even more widely than he did, earning him adulation throughout Europe, Asia, and especially the Americas. This book contends that, for writers who are part of the African diaspora, translation is more than just a literary practice: it is a fact of life and a way of thinking. Focusing on Hughes' autobiographies, translations of his poetry, his own translations, and the political lyrics that brought him to the attention of the infamous McCarthy Committee, the book shows that translating and being translated—and often mistranslated—are as vital to Hughes' own poetics as they are to understanding the historical network of cultural relations known as literary modernism. As the book maps the trajectory of Hughes' writings across Europe and the Americas, we see the remarkable extent to which the translations of his poetry were in conversation with the work of other modernist writers. The book spotlights cities whose roles as meeting places for modernists from all over the world have yet to be fully explored: Madrid, Havana, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Harlem. The result is a fresh look at Hughes, not as a solitary author who wrote in a single language, but as an international figure at the heart of a global intellectual and artistic formation.Less
The poet Langston Hughes was a tireless world traveler and a prolific translator, editor, and marketer. Translations of his own writings traveled even more widely than he did, earning him adulation throughout Europe, Asia, and especially the Americas. This book contends that, for writers who are part of the African diaspora, translation is more than just a literary practice: it is a fact of life and a way of thinking. Focusing on Hughes' autobiographies, translations of his poetry, his own translations, and the political lyrics that brought him to the attention of the infamous McCarthy Committee, the book shows that translating and being translated—and often mistranslated—are as vital to Hughes' own poetics as they are to understanding the historical network of cultural relations known as literary modernism. As the book maps the trajectory of Hughes' writings across Europe and the Americas, we see the remarkable extent to which the translations of his poetry were in conversation with the work of other modernist writers. The book spotlights cities whose roles as meeting places for modernists from all over the world have yet to be fully explored: Madrid, Havana, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Harlem. The result is a fresh look at Hughes, not as a solitary author who wrote in a single language, but as an international figure at the heart of a global intellectual and artistic formation.
Kathryn Hume
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450013
- eISBN:
- 9780801462870
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450013.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
A frequent complaint against contemporary American fiction is that too often it puts off readers in ways they find difficult to fathom. Books such as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Katherine ...
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A frequent complaint against contemporary American fiction is that too often it puts off readers in ways they find difficult to fathom. Books such as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, and Don DeLillo's Underworld seem determined to upset, disgust, or annoy their readers—or to disorient them by shunning traditional plot patterns and character development. This book calls such works “aggressive fiction.” Why would authors risk alienating their readers—and why should readers persevere? Looking beyond the theory-based justifications that critics often provide for such fiction, this book offers a common-sense guide for the average reader who wants to better understand and appreciate books that might otherwise seem difficult to enjoy. The book considers roughly forty works of recent American fiction, including books by William Burroughs, Kathy Acker, Chuck Palahniuk, and Cormac McCarthy. It gathers “attacks” on the reader into categories based on narrative structure and content. Writers of some aggressive fictions may wish to frustrate easy interpretation or criticism. Others may try to induce certain responses in readers. Extreme content deployed as a tactic for distancing and alienating can actually produce a contradictory effect: for readers who learn to relax and go with the flow, the result may well be exhilaration rather than revulsion.Less
A frequent complaint against contemporary American fiction is that too often it puts off readers in ways they find difficult to fathom. Books such as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, and Don DeLillo's Underworld seem determined to upset, disgust, or annoy their readers—or to disorient them by shunning traditional plot patterns and character development. This book calls such works “aggressive fiction.” Why would authors risk alienating their readers—and why should readers persevere? Looking beyond the theory-based justifications that critics often provide for such fiction, this book offers a common-sense guide for the average reader who wants to better understand and appreciate books that might otherwise seem difficult to enjoy. The book considers roughly forty works of recent American fiction, including books by William Burroughs, Kathy Acker, Chuck Palahniuk, and Cormac McCarthy. It gathers “attacks” on the reader into categories based on narrative structure and content. Writers of some aggressive fictions may wish to frustrate easy interpretation or criticism. Others may try to induce certain responses in readers. Extreme content deployed as a tactic for distancing and alienating can actually produce a contradictory effect: for readers who learn to relax and go with the flow, the result may well be exhilaration rather than revulsion.
István Hargittai
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195178456
- eISBN:
- 9780199787012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195178456.003.0006
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
To understand the Martians, it helps to compare them with their contemporaries, like Enrico Fermi and Robert Oppenheimer. Both Szilard and Fermi worked on the applications of physical discoveries for ...
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To understand the Martians, it helps to compare them with their contemporaries, like Enrico Fermi and Robert Oppenheimer. Both Szilard and Fermi worked on the applications of physical discoveries for the defense of the United States. But for Fermi, this came from a feeling of duty, whereas for Szilard, saving the world was his leitmotiv. Teller and Oppenheimer came from similar backgrounds, but they clashed repeatedly in matters of national defense; Teller contributed to Oppenheimer’s destruction in the McCarthy era. The professed Jewish roots and strong Hungarian identity enhanced the complexity of the Martians’ natures. They generated mixed reactions in their peers, but everyone recognized them as great contributors to 20th-century history.Less
To understand the Martians, it helps to compare them with their contemporaries, like Enrico Fermi and Robert Oppenheimer. Both Szilard and Fermi worked on the applications of physical discoveries for the defense of the United States. But for Fermi, this came from a feeling of duty, whereas for Szilard, saving the world was his leitmotiv. Teller and Oppenheimer came from similar backgrounds, but they clashed repeatedly in matters of national defense; Teller contributed to Oppenheimer’s destruction in the McCarthy era. The professed Jewish roots and strong Hungarian identity enhanced the complexity of the Martians’ natures. They generated mixed reactions in their peers, but everyone recognized them as great contributors to 20th-century history.
James H. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596997
- eISBN:
- 9780191723520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596997.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The newer Irish land novel of the 1840s and beyond was different from what had gone before inasmuch as it essentially charted a struggle, both ideological and physical, between landlords and tenants ...
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The newer Irish land novel of the 1840s and beyond was different from what had gone before inasmuch as it essentially charted a struggle, both ideological and physical, between landlords and tenants for the future of the land. Ironically, this was pioneered in the work of Charles Lever and Anna Maria Hall, who were despised by Carleton, the traditional moralism of whose own work had few emulators. By contrast Trollope's Irish novels of this period are ultimately uninterested in the land situation. In the 1870s and 1880s realism was achieved in the work of Margaret Brew and Annie Keary. The 1860s also saw the development both of the Fenian novel and of the Irish political novel, the latter due to the efforts of Trollope and his character Phineas Finn, who features in several of the Palliser novels. It was carried on, largely single-handedly, by the moderate Irish nationalist parliamentarian Justin McCarthy (1830–1912), who continued to write political novels for thirty years or so.Less
The newer Irish land novel of the 1840s and beyond was different from what had gone before inasmuch as it essentially charted a struggle, both ideological and physical, between landlords and tenants for the future of the land. Ironically, this was pioneered in the work of Charles Lever and Anna Maria Hall, who were despised by Carleton, the traditional moralism of whose own work had few emulators. By contrast Trollope's Irish novels of this period are ultimately uninterested in the land situation. In the 1870s and 1880s realism was achieved in the work of Margaret Brew and Annie Keary. The 1860s also saw the development both of the Fenian novel and of the Irish political novel, the latter due to the efforts of Trollope and his character Phineas Finn, who features in several of the Palliser novels. It was carried on, largely single-handedly, by the moderate Irish nationalist parliamentarian Justin McCarthy (1830–1912), who continued to write political novels for thirty years or so.
Jean W. Cash and Keith Perry (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781496802330
- eISBN:
- 9781496804990
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496802330.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This book describes and discusses the work of southern writers who began their careers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They fall into two categories. Some, born into the ...
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This book describes and discusses the work of southern writers who began their careers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They fall into two categories. Some, born into the working class, strove to become writers and learned without benefit of higher education, such writers as Larry Brown and William Gay. Others came from lower- or middle-class backgrounds and became writers through practice and education: Dorothy Allison, Tom Franklin, Tim Gautreaux, Clyde Edgerton, Kaye Gibbons, Silas House, Jill McCorkle, Chris Offutt, Ron Rash, Lee Smith, Brad Watson, Daniel Woodrell, and Steve Yarbrough. Their twenty-first-century colleagues are Wiley Cash, Peter Farris, Skip Horack, Michael Farris Smith, Barb Johnson, and Jesmyn Ward. The book starts by distinguishing Rough South writers from such writers as William Faulkner and Erskine Caldwell. Younger writers who followed Harry Crews were born into and write about the Rough South. These writers undercut stereotypes, forcing readers to see the working poor differently. Other chapters begin with those on Crews and Cormac McCarthy, major influences on an entire generation. Later chapters address members of both groups—the self-educated and the college-educated. Both groups share a clear understanding of the value of working-class southerners.Less
This book describes and discusses the work of southern writers who began their careers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They fall into two categories. Some, born into the working class, strove to become writers and learned without benefit of higher education, such writers as Larry Brown and William Gay. Others came from lower- or middle-class backgrounds and became writers through practice and education: Dorothy Allison, Tom Franklin, Tim Gautreaux, Clyde Edgerton, Kaye Gibbons, Silas House, Jill McCorkle, Chris Offutt, Ron Rash, Lee Smith, Brad Watson, Daniel Woodrell, and Steve Yarbrough. Their twenty-first-century colleagues are Wiley Cash, Peter Farris, Skip Horack, Michael Farris Smith, Barb Johnson, and Jesmyn Ward. The book starts by distinguishing Rough South writers from such writers as William Faulkner and Erskine Caldwell. Younger writers who followed Harry Crews were born into and write about the Rough South. These writers undercut stereotypes, forcing readers to see the working poor differently. Other chapters begin with those on Crews and Cormac McCarthy, major influences on an entire generation. Later chapters address members of both groups—the self-educated and the college-educated. Both groups share a clear understanding of the value of working-class southerners.
Daniel Lea
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719081491
- eISBN:
- 9781526121097
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719081491.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This study explores the landscape of contemporary British fiction through detailed analysis of five authors that have emerged to critical prominence in the 21st century. The authors addressed - Ali ...
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This study explores the landscape of contemporary British fiction through detailed analysis of five authors that have emerged to critical prominence in the 21st century. The authors addressed - Ali Smith, Andrew O’Hagan, Tom McCarthy, Sarah Hall, and Jon McGregor – have all established themselves through popular and critical success, but have received significantly less attention than some of their peers. This book does not seek to thrust these authors into a putative canon of 21st century literary writing, but rather to explore through close attention to the resonances, continuities, elisions, and frictions across their works the temper of the contemporary moment as it is expressed by a group of writers. Each is devoted a chapter that analyses their creative output to-date within the frame of their stylistic and thematic development, as well as drawing comparisons across their writing and that of their peers. The intention is never to provide the kind of synoptical overview that a period-study might suggest, instead Twenty-First Century Fiction: Contemporary British Voices seeks to juxtapose critical readings within a constellation of contemporary literary concerns to examine what cultural energies and flows are emerging in the new century. In doing so, it identifies three recurrent areas of concern that might be said to infiltrate our times; these are Materiality, Connectivity, and Authenticity. In many forms and through many articulations, these issues emerge as insistent – if inchoate – questions about how current literary practice is responding to the challenge of the post-millennial world.Less
This study explores the landscape of contemporary British fiction through detailed analysis of five authors that have emerged to critical prominence in the 21st century. The authors addressed - Ali Smith, Andrew O’Hagan, Tom McCarthy, Sarah Hall, and Jon McGregor – have all established themselves through popular and critical success, but have received significantly less attention than some of their peers. This book does not seek to thrust these authors into a putative canon of 21st century literary writing, but rather to explore through close attention to the resonances, continuities, elisions, and frictions across their works the temper of the contemporary moment as it is expressed by a group of writers. Each is devoted a chapter that analyses their creative output to-date within the frame of their stylistic and thematic development, as well as drawing comparisons across their writing and that of their peers. The intention is never to provide the kind of synoptical overview that a period-study might suggest, instead Twenty-First Century Fiction: Contemporary British Voices seeks to juxtapose critical readings within a constellation of contemporary literary concerns to examine what cultural energies and flows are emerging in the new century. In doing so, it identifies three recurrent areas of concern that might be said to infiltrate our times; these are Materiality, Connectivity, and Authenticity. In many forms and through many articulations, these issues emerge as insistent – if inchoate – questions about how current literary practice is responding to the challenge of the post-millennial world.
Deborah Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226457772
- eISBN:
- 9780226457949
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226457949.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book identifies Diane Arbus, Hannah Arendt, Joan Didion, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, and Simone Weil as a counter tradition of unsentimental writing and art that stands between the cultures of ...
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This book identifies Diane Arbus, Hannah Arendt, Joan Didion, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, and Simone Weil as a counter tradition of unsentimental writing and art that stands between the cultures of irony and authenticity in the late twentieth century. Their work not only challenges empathy as the most important ethical model for attending to suffering in the postwar world, but also advocates for and demonstrates the ethics and aesthetics of the unsentimental. Played out at the level of style, this representational strategy required toughness, which is not desensitizing but rather re-sensitizing to the world, just not to other people's emotions. The book traces the careers of these women, who each had her own idiom for this unsentimental project. Simone Weil espoused a tragic formulation of justice in her embrace of a form of suffering so extreme its only analogy is the Crucifixion. Hannah Arendt described herself as heartless so as to elaborate an alternative to a politics of compassion. Mary McCarthy provided an aesthetic theory of the fact. Susan Sontag explored the problems of emotional self-regulation under late capitalism. Diane Arbus viewed failure as an ordinary part of self-fashioning, providing a pedagogy of helplessness. And Joan Didion pitched a battle with self-pity and self-delusion, which ground to a halt when she came to understand the grandiosity of hardness.Less
This book identifies Diane Arbus, Hannah Arendt, Joan Didion, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, and Simone Weil as a counter tradition of unsentimental writing and art that stands between the cultures of irony and authenticity in the late twentieth century. Their work not only challenges empathy as the most important ethical model for attending to suffering in the postwar world, but also advocates for and demonstrates the ethics and aesthetics of the unsentimental. Played out at the level of style, this representational strategy required toughness, which is not desensitizing but rather re-sensitizing to the world, just not to other people's emotions. The book traces the careers of these women, who each had her own idiom for this unsentimental project. Simone Weil espoused a tragic formulation of justice in her embrace of a form of suffering so extreme its only analogy is the Crucifixion. Hannah Arendt described herself as heartless so as to elaborate an alternative to a politics of compassion. Mary McCarthy provided an aesthetic theory of the fact. Susan Sontag explored the problems of emotional self-regulation under late capitalism. Diane Arbus viewed failure as an ordinary part of self-fashioning, providing a pedagogy of helplessness. And Joan Didion pitched a battle with self-pity and self-delusion, which ground to a halt when she came to understand the grandiosity of hardness.
Larry Blomstedt
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166117
- eISBN:
- 9780813166391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166117.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The introduction traces the history of Truman’s relationship with Congress from the end of World War II to the eve of the Korean War. Due to southern resistance to his Fair Deal initiatives, civil ...
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The introduction traces the history of Truman’s relationship with Congress from the end of World War II to the eve of the Korean War. Due to southern resistance to his Fair Deal initiatives, civil rights issues in particular, Truman struggled to maintain Democratic Party unity. World War II marked the beginning of bipartisanship in foreign policy, with both major parties tacitly agreeing not to include international issues in political debate in order to present a unified front to the world. By the end of the 1940s, however, the bipartisan foreign policy idea began to unravel, and international affairs figured heavily in the 1950 midterm elections. Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of communist infiltration into the State Department contributed significantly to rancor between Truman and Congress just before the Korean War broke out.Less
The introduction traces the history of Truman’s relationship with Congress from the end of World War II to the eve of the Korean War. Due to southern resistance to his Fair Deal initiatives, civil rights issues in particular, Truman struggled to maintain Democratic Party unity. World War II marked the beginning of bipartisanship in foreign policy, with both major parties tacitly agreeing not to include international issues in political debate in order to present a unified front to the world. By the end of the 1940s, however, the bipartisan foreign policy idea began to unravel, and international affairs figured heavily in the 1950 midterm elections. Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of communist infiltration into the State Department contributed significantly to rancor between Truman and Congress just before the Korean War broke out.
Larry Blomstedt
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166117
- eISBN:
- 9780813166391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166117.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The 1952 presidential election presented a host of issues for the Democratic Party. After considering running for another term, Truman helped a reluctant Adlai Stevenson secure the party’s nomination ...
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The 1952 presidential election presented a host of issues for the Democratic Party. After considering running for another term, Truman helped a reluctant Adlai Stevenson secure the party’s nomination to face Republican Dwight Eisenhower. Unlike the 1948 contest, foreign policy was now fair game for debate in presidential politics, thanks to the end of any meaningful semblance of bipartisanship in international affairs. Eisenhower used the “K1C2” formula in the campaign, focusing on Korea, communism, and corruption. Surprisingly, Joseph McCarthy’s assault on the Truman administration for being soft on communism had relatively little effect on the election. In the end, the Korean War was the deciding factor as the American people concluded that Eisenhower was the candidate best suited to end a frustrating stalemated war.Less
The 1952 presidential election presented a host of issues for the Democratic Party. After considering running for another term, Truman helped a reluctant Adlai Stevenson secure the party’s nomination to face Republican Dwight Eisenhower. Unlike the 1948 contest, foreign policy was now fair game for debate in presidential politics, thanks to the end of any meaningful semblance of bipartisanship in international affairs. Eisenhower used the “K1C2” formula in the campaign, focusing on Korea, communism, and corruption. Surprisingly, Joseph McCarthy’s assault on the Truman administration for being soft on communism had relatively little effect on the election. In the end, the Korean War was the deciding factor as the American people concluded that Eisenhower was the candidate best suited to end a frustrating stalemated war.
