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American modernism and depression documentary / Jeff Allred.
Author
Allred, Jeff, 1972-
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Description
viii, 272 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Availability
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
PS228.P48 A45 2010
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Marquand Library - Photography
PS228.P48 A45 2010
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Details
Subject(s)
American literature
—
20th century
—
History and criticism
[Browse]
Documentary photography
—
United States
—
History
—
20th century
[Browse]
Modernism (Literature)
—
United States
[Browse]
Literature and photography
—
United States
—
History
—
20th century
[Browse]
Photography
—
Political aspects
—
United States
[Browse]
Caldwell, Erskine 1903-1987
—
You have seen their faces
[Browse]
Agee, James 1909-1955
—
Let us now praise famous men
[Browse]
Wright, Richard 1908-1960
—
12 million black voices
[Browse]
Summary note
"Jeff Allred draws on a range of seminal works to illustrate the convergence of modernism and documentary, two forms often regarded as unrelated. Whereas critics routinely look to James Agee and Walker Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men as the sole instance of the modernist documentary book, Allred turns to such works as Richard Wright's scathing 12 Million Black Voices, and the oft-neglected You Have Seen Their Faces by Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White to open up the critical playing field. And rather than focusing on the ethos of Progressivism and/or the politics and aesthetics of the New Deal, Allred emphasizes the centrality of Life magazine to the consolidation of a novel cultural form." "In a series of provocative and thoughtful case studies, Allred reveals how documentary texts invite readers to engage in a speculative practice of aesthetic construction. Thus the genre brought an increasing awareness of the nation's artistic vitality as well as its social failings. Carefully argued and rigorously researched, American Modernism and Depression Documentary establishes the documentary book as a major form that constitutes a critical legacy of both modernism and Depression-era culture."--Jacket.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Introduction: plausible fictions of the real
From 'culture' to 'cultural work': literature and labor between the wars
The road to somewhere: locating knowledge in Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White's You have seen their faces (1937)
Moving violations: stasis and mobility in James Agee and Walker Evans's Let us now praise famous men (1941)
From eye to we: Richard Wright's 12 million black voices, documentary, and pedagogy
'We Americans': Henry Luce, life, and the mind-guided camera
Epilogue: depression documentary and the knot of history.
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ISBN
9780195335682 ((hardback ; : alk. paper))
0195335686 ((hardback ; : alk. paper))
LCCN
2009002666
OCLC
308979865
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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American modernism and depression documentary / Jeff Allred.
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SCSB-12460900