A New Heartland

Women, Modernity, and the Agrarian Ideal in America

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American, Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Women&, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book A New Heartland by Janet Galligani Casey, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Janet Galligani Casey ISBN: 9780190623579
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: April 16, 2009
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Janet Galligani Casey
ISBN: 9780190623579
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: April 16, 2009
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Modernity and urbanity have long been considered mutually sustaining forces in early twentieth-century America. But has the dominance of the urban imaginary obscured the importance of the rural? How have women, in particular, appropriated discourses and images of rurality to interrogate the problems of modernity? And how have they imbued the rural-traditionally viewed as a locus for conservatism-with a progressive political valence? Touching on such diverse subjects as eugenics, reproductive rights, advertising, the economy of literary prizes, and the role of the camera, A New Heartland demonstrates the importance of rurality to the imaginative construction of modernism/modernity; it also asserts that women, as objects of scrutiny as well as agents of critique, had a special stake in that relation. Casey traces the ideals informing America's conception of the rural across a wide field of representational domains, including social theory, periodical literature, cultural criticism, photography, and, most especially, women's rural fiction ("low" as well as "high"). Her argument is informed by archival research, most crucially through a careful analysis of The Farmer's Wife, the single nationally distributed farm journal for women and a little known repository of rural American attitudes. Through this broad scope, A New Heartland articulates an alternative mode of modernism by challenging orthodox ideas about gender and geography in twentieth-century America.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Modernity and urbanity have long been considered mutually sustaining forces in early twentieth-century America. But has the dominance of the urban imaginary obscured the importance of the rural? How have women, in particular, appropriated discourses and images of rurality to interrogate the problems of modernity? And how have they imbued the rural-traditionally viewed as a locus for conservatism-with a progressive political valence? Touching on such diverse subjects as eugenics, reproductive rights, advertising, the economy of literary prizes, and the role of the camera, A New Heartland demonstrates the importance of rurality to the imaginative construction of modernism/modernity; it also asserts that women, as objects of scrutiny as well as agents of critique, had a special stake in that relation. Casey traces the ideals informing America's conception of the rural across a wide field of representational domains, including social theory, periodical literature, cultural criticism, photography, and, most especially, women's rural fiction ("low" as well as "high"). Her argument is informed by archival research, most crucially through a careful analysis of The Farmer's Wife, the single nationally distributed farm journal for women and a little known repository of rural American attitudes. Through this broad scope, A New Heartland articulates an alternative mode of modernism by challenging orthodox ideas about gender and geography in twentieth-century America.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book Jews in Canada by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Handbook of Brain Microcircuits by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Dubliners by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book All Shook Up by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Al-Hilli: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Exposing Men by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Europe's Growth Challenge by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Raising the Dead by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book From Jim Crow to Civil Rights by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Faith in the Halls of Power by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Expressive Arts for Social Work and Social Change by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book That All May Flourish by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Analyzing Bach Cantatas by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Altered Egos by Janet Galligani Casey
Cover of the book Faulkner's Media Romance by Janet Galligani Casey
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy