Visions of Belonging - Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 1940-1960

Informationen zum Autor Judith E. Smith Klappentext Visions of Belonging explores how beloved and still-remembered family stories -- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn! I Remember Mama! Gentleman's Agreement! Death of a Salesman! Marty! and A Raisin in the Sun -- entered the popular imagination and shaped collective dreams in the postwar years and into the 1950s. These stories helped define widely shared conceptions of who counted as representative Americans and who could be recognized as belonging. The book listens in as white and black authors and directors! readers and viewers reveal divergent! emotionally textured! and politically charged social visions. Their diverse perspectives provide a point of entry into an extraordinary time when the possibilities for social transformation seemed boundless. But changes were also fiercely contested! especially as the war's culture of unity receded in the resurgence of cold war anticommunism! and demands for racial equality were met with intensifying white resistance. Judith E. Smith traces the cultural trajectory of these family stories! as they circulated widely in bestselling paperbacks! hit movies! and popular drama on stage! radio! and television. Visions of Belonging provides unusually close access to a vibrant conversation among white and black Americans about the boundaries between public life and family matters and the meanings of race and ethnicity. Would the new appearance of white working class ethnic characters expand Americans'understanding of democracy? Would these stories challenge the color line? How could these stories simultaneously show that black families belonged to the larger "family" of the nation while also representing the forms of danger and discriminations that excluded them from full citizenship? In the 1940s! war-driven challenges to racial and ethnic borderlines encouraged hesitant trespass against older notions of "normal." But by the end of the 1950s! the cold war cultural atmosphere discouraged probing of racial and social inequality and ultimately turned family stories into a comforting retreat from politics. The book crosses disciplinary boundaries! suggesting a novel method for cultural history by probing the social history of literary! dramatic! and cinematic texts. Smith's innovative use of archival research sets authorial intent next to audience reception to show how both contribute to shaping the contested meanings of American belonging. Zusammenfassung Explores how the family stories entered the popular imagination and shaped collective dreams in the postwar years and into the 1950s. This book also provides access to a vibrant conversation among white and black Americans about the boundaries between public life and family matters! and the meanings of race and ethnicity. Inhaltsverzeichnis AcknowledgmentsPart 1 Ordinary Families! Popular Culture! and Popular Democracy! 1935-1945Radio's Formula DramaPopular Theater and Popular DemocracyPopular Democracy on the RadioPopular Democracy in Wartime: Multiethnic and Multiracial?Representing the SoldierThe New World of the Home FrontSoldiers as Veterans: Imagining the Postwar WorldLooking Back StoriesPart 2 Making the Working-Class Family Ordinary: A Tree Grows in BrooklynFrom Working-Class Daughter to Working-Class WriterRevising 1930s Radical VisionsRemembering a Working-Class PastInstructing the Middle ClassThe Ethnic and Racial Boundaries of the OrdinaryMaking Womanhood OrdinaryHollywood Revises A Tree Grows in BrooklynThe Declining Appeal of Tree's Social TerrainPart 3 Home Front Harmony and Remembering Mama"Mama's Bank Account" and Other Ethnic Working-Class FictionsRemembering Mama on the StageThe Mother Next Door on Film! 1947-1948Mama on CBS! 1949-1956The Appeal of TV Mama's Ordinary Family"Trading Places" StoriesPart 4 Loving A...

Product details

• Authors: Gareth E. Jones, Judith Smith, Judith E. Smith, Smith Judith
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 23.05.2006
• EAN: 9780231121712
• ISBN: 978-0-231-12171-2
• No. of pages: 464
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 222 mm x 32 mm
• Series: Popular Cultures, Everyday Lives; Popular Cultures, Everyday Liv; Popular Cultures, Everyday Lives; Popular Cultures, Everyday Liv
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; USA, Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, United States of America, USA, c 1938 to c 1946 (World War Two period), c 1950 to c 1959, c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), C 1945 To C 1960