Rachel Greenwald Smith's Affect and American Literature in the Age of Neoliberalism examines the relationship between American literature and politics in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Smith contends that the representation of emotions in contemporary fiction emphasizes the personal lives of characters at a time when there is an unprecedented, and often damaging, focus on the individual in American life. Through readings of works by Paul Auster, Karen Tei Yamashita, Ben Marcus, Lydia Millet, and others who stage experiments in the relationship between feeling and form, Smith argues for the centrality of a counter-tradition in contemporary literature concerned with impersonal feelings: feelings that challenge the neoliberal notion that emotions are the property of the self.
Affect and American Literature in the Age of Neoliberalism examines the relationship between contemporary American literature and politics.About the AuthorRachel Greenwald Smith is Assistant Professor of English at Saint Louis University. Her work has appeared in such journals as American Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature, Mediations, and Modern Fiction Studies.
Book InformationISBN 9781107479227
Author Rachel Greenwald SmithFormat Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Cambridge University PressPublisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 310g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 150mm * 11mm