Description
Mechanic Accents is a widely acclaimed study of American popular fiction and working-class culture. Combining Marxist literary theory with American labor history, Michael Denning explores what happened when, in the nineteenth century, working people began to read cheap novels and the "fiction question" became a class question. In a new afterword, Denning locates his study within the context of current debates on class and cultural studies.
"One of the most illuminating, theoretically informed accounts of popular fiction." -Terry Eagleton
About the Author
Michael Denning is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of American Studies at Yale University, and the co-director of Yale's Initiative on Labor and Culture. He is the author of Culture in the Age of Three Worlds; The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century; Mechanic Accents: Dime Novels and Working-Class Culture in America; and Cover Stories: Narrative and Ideology in the British Spy Thriller. He coordinates the Working Group on Globalization and Culture, whose collective work includes "Going into Debt," published online in Social Text's Periscope, and "Spaces and Times of Occupation," published in Transforming Anthropology. In 2014, he received the Bode-Pearson lifetime achievement award from the American Studies Association.
Reviews
One of the most illuminating, theoretically informed accounts of popular fiction now available. -- Terry Eagleton
A fresh and methodologically pathbreaking look at popular or mass-cultural narrative and its ideological function in a specific formative period of North American modernity. -- Fredric Jameson
Mechanic Accents abounds with new ways to think about America's ubiquitous popular culture ... [Denning has] a first-rate intelligence and the generous sensibilities of a cultural modernist and democrat. -- Christine Stansell * Voice Literary Supplement *
An impressive and excellent book ... removes dime novels from the clutches of nostalgia buffs, returns mass fiction to the workers who read it, and convincingly outlines a fresh paradigm for the study of mass culture. * Labor History *
Book Information
ISBN 9781859842508
Author Michael Denning
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 372g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 137mm * 23mm
"One of the most illuminating, theoretically informed accounts of popular fiction." -Terry Eagleton
About the Author
Michael Denning is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of American Studies at Yale University, and the co-director of Yale's Initiative on Labor and Culture. He is the author of Culture in the Age of Three Worlds; The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century; Mechanic Accents: Dime Novels and Working-Class Culture in America; and Cover Stories: Narrative and Ideology in the British Spy Thriller. He coordinates the Working Group on Globalization and Culture, whose collective work includes "Going into Debt," published online in Social Text's Periscope, and "Spaces and Times of Occupation," published in Transforming Anthropology. In 2014, he received the Bode-Pearson lifetime achievement award from the American Studies Association.
Reviews
One of the most illuminating, theoretically informed accounts of popular fiction now available. -- Terry Eagleton
A fresh and methodologically pathbreaking look at popular or mass-cultural narrative and its ideological function in a specific formative period of North American modernity. -- Fredric Jameson
Mechanic Accents abounds with new ways to think about America's ubiquitous popular culture ... [Denning has] a first-rate intelligence and the generous sensibilities of a cultural modernist and democrat. -- Christine Stansell * Voice Literary Supplement *
An impressive and excellent book ... removes dime novels from the clutches of nostalgia buffs, returns mass fiction to the workers who read it, and convincingly outlines a fresh paradigm for the study of mass culture. * Labor History *
Book Information
ISBN 9781859842508
Author Michael Denning
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 372g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 137mm * 23mm
