Sublime Enjoyment
On the Perverse Motive in American Literature
Published on 13. November 1997
Book
Hardback
194 pages
978-0-521-58437-1 (ISBN)
Description
Linking classic American literature to contemporary popular culture, Sublime Enjoyment argues that the rational systems of normal social life are motivated and sustained by 'perverse' desires. This perversity arises from the failure of symbolic satisfactions - love, work, success - to make us happy, and from our refusal to accept that failure. Hoping to achieve satisfaction, we respond ultimately to situations that evoke older, more primary drives and their attendant emotions. But while a conventional pervert knows exactly what to want, the healthy pervert must find enjoyment inadvertently: in the object of the sublime, in duty and reason, and in the obligations of a 'fun morality'. Examining the ways in which this inadvertence is represented in American literature and culture, Dennis Foster identifies ways in which longings are linked to social forces.
Reviews / Votes
"...such a personalized list of subjects gives Foster license to write in an engagingly personal tone, which though not breezy or unserious makes difficult material palatable. This will be especially so for readers in whom contemporary critical trends elicit groans of anguish, as though they were being forced to endure an article in a scholarly journal. With its fascinating annotations, recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above." J. M. Ditsky, Choice "Foster's readings are more than consistently credible; they are thoroughly provocative, often generating startling insights about the assumptions that keep the myth of America patched together." Heather J. Hicks, American Literature "Perhaps the greatest value...is...[the] conscious negotiation of the always uneasy space between literary criticism and sociopolitical transformation." Calvin Thomas, Contemporary LiteratureMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
440 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-58437-1 (9780521584371)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2009
Cambridge University Press
€48.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Content
1. Introduction: the problem with pleasure; 2. The sublime community; 3. Re-Poe Man: Poe's un-American sublime; 4. Too resurgent: liquidity and consumption in Henry James; 5. Alphabetic pleasures: The Names; 6. J. G. Ballard's empire of the senses: perversion and the failure of authority; 7. Fatal West: W. S. Burrough's perverse destiny; 8. Conclusion: agency in the perverse; Notes; Bibliography; Index.