| Description |
1 online resource (226 pages) : illustrations. |
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text rdacontent |
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computer rdamedia |
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online resource rdacarrier |
| Series |
Print culture and the history of the book |
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Studies in print culture and the history of the book.
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| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Preface -- Introduction: "there is much to be gained by our reading" -- America reads: literacy and Cold War nationalism -- Reading for character, community, and country: J. D. Salinger's The catcher in the rye -- Reading to outmaneuver: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and African American -- Literacy in Cold War America -- Reading against the machine: Oedipa Maas and the quest for democracy in Thomas Pynchon's The crying of lot 49 -- Metafiction and radical democracy: getting at the heart of John Barth's Lost in the funhouse -- Confronting difference, confronting difficulty: culture wars, canon wars, and Maxine Hong Kingston's The woman warrior -- Conclusion: "reading makes a country great". |
| Summary |
"During the Cold War, the editor of Time magazine declared, "A good citizen is a good reader." As postwar euphoria faded, a wide variety of Americans turned to reading to understand their place in the changing world. Yet, what did it mean to be a good reader? And how did reading make you a good citizen? In Reading America, Kristin L. Matthews puts into conversation a range of political, educational, popular, and touchstone literary texts to demonstrate how Americans from across the political spectrum--including "great works" proponents, New Critics, civil rights leaders, postmodern theorists, neoconservatives, and multiculturalists--celebrated particular texts and advocated particular interpretive methods as they worked to make their vision of "America" a reality. She situates the fiction of J. D. Salinger, Ralph Ellison, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, and Maxine Hong Kingston within these debates, illustrating how Cold War literature was not just an object of but also a vested participant in postwar efforts to define good reading and citizenship" -- Provided by publisher. |
| Note |
Description based on print version record. |
| Subject |
American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
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Books and reading -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Cold War in literature.
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Politics and literature.
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Identity (Psychology) in literature.
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Citizenship in literature.
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Democracy in literature.
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Added Title |
Citizenship, democracy, and Cold War literature |
| Other Form: |
Print version: Matthews, Kristin L. Reading America : citizenship, democracy, and Cold War literature. Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2016] Print culture and the history of the book 9781625342348 |
| ISBN |
9781625342355 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
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9781625342348 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
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9781613764695 (electronic bk.) |
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