A sense of things
Subtitle: the object matter of American literature
By: Bill Brown.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 245
Subjects: American fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Material culture in literature; Economics and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Material culture -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Production (Economic theory) in literature; Consumption (Economics) in literature; Possessiveness in literature
Description: "Brown's new study explores the roots of modern America's fascination with things and the problem that objects posed for American literature at the turn of the century. This was an era when the invention, production, distribution, and consumption of things suddenly came to define a national culture. Brown shows how crucial novels of the time made things not a solution to problems, but problems in their own right.

Writers such as Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Henry James ask why and how we use objects to make meaning, to make or remake ourselves, to organize our anxieties and affections, to sublimate our fears, and to shape our wildest dreams. Offering a remarkably new way to think about materialism. A Sense of Things will be essential reading for anyone interested in American literature and culture."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-235) and index.
Table of contents: title: The idea of things and the ideas in them; title: The tyranny of things; title: The nature of things; title: Regional artifacts; title: The decoration of houses; title: The death and life of things : modernity and modernism.