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6. The American Novel and the Marketplace

  • Sean A. Witters

Abstract

The essay addresses the ambivalent relationship between the modern and postmodern novel and the institutions and values of the mass culture that produced it. Reading along three characteristic forms of tension with market, the essay shows the ways in which major American novels of the twentieth and twenty-first century simultaneously challenged and reproduced the values, language, and logic of market society. A series of close readings demonstrates how the project of both representing and resisting the dynamic power of the American marketplace shapes form, narration, imagery, and themes in the novels of James, Wharton, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Salinger, Morrison, and Foer. Working across a range of subject positions, class tensions, and identity issues, the essay traces a rich history of negotiations between the novel, the marketplace, and ideals of literary, artistic, and human value.

Abstract

The essay addresses the ambivalent relationship between the modern and postmodern novel and the institutions and values of the mass culture that produced it. Reading along three characteristic forms of tension with market, the essay shows the ways in which major American novels of the twentieth and twenty-first century simultaneously challenged and reproduced the values, language, and logic of market society. A series of close readings demonstrates how the project of both representing and resisting the dynamic power of the American marketplace shapes form, narration, imagery, and themes in the novels of James, Wharton, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Salinger, Morrison, and Foer. Working across a range of subject positions, class tensions, and identity issues, the essay traces a rich history of negotiations between the novel, the marketplace, and ideals of literary, artistic, and human value.

Heruntergeladen am 20.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110422429-008/html
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