American Literary Realism, Critical Theory, and Intellectual Prestige, 1880–1995 (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, Series Number 126)

Focusing on key works of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literary realism, Phillip Barrish traces the emergence of new ways of gaining intellectual prestige - that is, new ways of gaining cultural recognition as unusually intelligent, sensitive or even wise. Through extended readings of works by Henry James, William Dean Howells, Abraham Cahan and Edith Wharton, Barrish emphasises the differences between literary realist modes of intellectual and cultural authority and those associated with the rise of the social sciences. In doing so, he greatly refines our understanding of the complex relationship between realist writing and masculinity. Barrish further argues that understanding the dynamics of intellectual status in realist literature provides new analytic purchase on intellectual prestige in recent critical theory. Here he focuses on such figures as Lionel Trilling, Paul de Man, John Guillory and Judith Butler. Focusing on key works of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century American literary realism, Phillip Barrish traces the emergence of new ways of gaining intellectual prestige - that is, new ways of gaining some degree of cultural recognition. Through extended readings of works by Henry James, William Dean Howells, Abraham Cahan, and Edith Wharton, Barrish emphasizes the differences between realist modes of cultural authority and those associated with the rise of the social sciences, and examines the impact of realism as a genre on the aesthetic, the self, masculinity and narrative more generally. Barrish also argues that, understanding the dynamics of intellectual status in realist literature also provides new analytic purchase on intellectual prestige in recent critical theory from such figures as Lionel Trilling, Paul de Man, John Guillory, and Judith Butler. This book is the first extended treatment of a genre, realism, central to our understanding of American literature. "Focusing on key works of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century American literary realism, Phillip Barrish traces the emergence of new ways of gaining intellectual prestige - that is, new ways of gaining cultural recognition as unusually intelligent, sensitive, or even wise. Through extended readings of works by Henry James, William Dean Howells, Abraham Cahan, and Edith Wharton, Barrish emphasizes the differences between literary realist modes of intellectual and cultural authority and those associated with the rise of the social sciences. In doing so, he greatly refines our understanding of the complex relationship between realist writing and masculinity. Barrish further argues that understanding the dynamics of intellectual status in realist literature provides new analytic purchase on intellectual prestige in recent critical theory. Here he focuses on such figures as Lionel Trilling, Paul de Man, John Guillory, and Judith Butler."--BOOK JACKET. Focusing on key works of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century American literary realism, Barrish traces the emergence of new ways of gaining intellectual prestige and some degree of cultural recognition. This book is the first extended treatment of a genre, realism, central to our understanding of American literature.;William Dean Howells and the roots of realist taste -- The "facts of physical suffering, " the literary intellectual, and The wings of the dove -- The "genuine article": credit and ethnicity in The rise of David Levinsky -- What Nona knows -- From reality, to materiality, to the real (and back again): the dynamics of distinction on the recent critical scene.