From Gift to Commodity: Capitalism and Sacrifice in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction

Neuausgabe 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61168-307-3
Verlag: UNIV OF NEW HAMPSHIRE PR

Buch, Englisch, 296 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 567 g

Reihe: Becoming Modern: New Nineteent

In this rich interdisciplinary study, Hildegard Hoeller argues that nineteenth-century American culture was driven by and deeply occupied with the tension between gift and market exchange. Rooting her analysis in the period's fiction, she shows how American novelists from Hannah Foster to Frank Norris grappled with the role of the gift based on trust, social bonds, and faith in an increasingly capitalist culture based on self-interest, market transactions, and economic reason. <br><br>Placing the notion of sacrifice at the centre of her discussion, Hoeller taps into the poignant discourse of modes of exchange, revealing central tensions of American fiction and culture.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hoeller, Hildegard

Über Autor(innen)

<strong>Hildegard Hoeller</strong> is professor of English, College of Staten Island, USA and professor of English and women's studies, The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA. She is author of <em>Edith Wharton's Dialogue with Realism and Sentimental Fiction</em> and editor of the >Norton Critical Edition of Horatio Alger's <em Ragged Dick</em>.