modernist domestic fiction and the U.S. welfare state /
Susan Edmunds.
New York :
Oxford University Press,
2008.
1 online resource (viii, 258 pages)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-251) and index.
Introduction: "As with a startling picture" : modernism and the domestic sphere -- "For she asks forever only help" : the critique of maternalist reform discourse in Djuna Barnes's Ryder -- Tortured bodies and twisted words : the antidomestic vision of Jean Toomer's Cane -- Freaked : eastern European immigration and the "American home" in Edna Ferber's American beauty -- "Not sentimental" : the double bind of white working-class femininity in Tillie Olsen's Yonnondio -- Siren calls : consumer revolution and the body beautiful in Nathanael West's The day of the locust -- "Not charity yet!" : state-supported capitalism and the secret life of god in Flannery O'Connor's Wise blood.
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In this book, Susan Edmunds explores he relationship between modernist domestic fiction and the rise of the U.S. welfare state. This relationship, which began in the Progressive era, emerged as maternalist reformers developed an inverted discourse of social housekeeping in order to call for state protection and regulation of the home. Modernists followed suit, turning the genre of domestic fiction inside out in order to represent new struggles on the border between home, market and state. Edmunds uses the work of Djuna Barnes, Jean Toomer, Tillie Olsen, Edna Ferber, Nathanael West, and Flanner.
MIL
171809
Grotesque relations.
American fiction-- 20th century-- History and criticism.
Domestic fiction, American-- History and criticism.
Grotesque in literature.
Literature and society-- United States-- History-- 20th century.
Modernism (Literature)-- United States.
Politics and literature-- United States-- History-- 20th century.
Public welfare-- United States-- History-- 20th century.