Make It Work - 20th Century American Fiction and Fashion

Imagine a new critical theory that bases its literary value on fashion. In this theory exists a community that explores and interrogates conventionality, and in American literature of the 20th century, it includes fashion and home decoration, two paths to achieving white femininity, a prized component of many novels written by and for women. Drawing on cultural materialism and its connection to the cultural forms of objects, including apparel, Making it Work: 20th Century American Fiction and Fashion provides readers a new understanding of the aims of American writers, and the desires of their readers.

List of contents

Introduction Part One: Fashion in Fiction; Fiction as Fashion 1. Edith Wharton: Fashioning White Privilege as Commodification, Consumption, and Corruption. 2. Margaret Mitchell: Fashioning A-Historical and Anti-Canonical White Modernism. 3. Toni Morrison: Re fashioning white privilege Part Two: Scripting Style and Signifyng Scripts 4. "Fashioning Color: Skin-tone Discrimination and Anglo Normative Passing" 5. "Fashioning Class: Creating Canonical Costume" 6. "Fashioning the Home: Deploying Domesticity and The Saturated Home" 7. "Fashioning the Self: Sewing, Designing, and Dressed in Dreams" 8. "Re-fashioning Age" Conclusion

About the author

Dr. Jan Ellyn Goggans is an Associate Professor of Literature & Language, Humanities & World Cultures at the University of California, Merced.

Summary

Drawing on cultural materialism and its connection to the cultural forms of objects, including apparel, this book provides readers a new understanding of the aims of American writers, and the desires of their readers.

Product details

• Authors: Jan Ellyn Goggans
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 25.04.2019
• EAN: 9780367203139
• ISBN: 978-0-367-20313-9
• No. of pages: 178
• Series: Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; USA, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, English, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, DESIGN / Fashion & Accessories, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, Fashion & society, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Cultural studies: dress and society