Democracy's Children , livre ebook

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2018

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How do American intellectuals try to achieve their political and social goals? By what means do they articulate their hopes for change? John McGowan seeks to identify the goals and strategies of contemporary humanistic intellectuals who strive to shape the politics and culture of their time. In a lively mix of personal reflection and shrewd analysis, McGowan visits the sites of intellectual activity (scholarly publications, professional conferences, the classroom, and the university) and considers the hazards of working within such institutional contexts to effect change outside the academy. Democracy's Children considers the historical trajectory that produced current intellectual practices. McGowan links the growing prestige of "culture" since 1800 to the growth of democracy and the obsession with modernity and explores how intellectuals became both custodians and creators of culture. Caught between fears of culture's irrelevance and dreams of its omnipotence, intellectuals pursue a cultural politics that aims for wide-ranging social transformations. For better or worse, McGowan says, the humanities are now tied to culture and to the university. The opportunities and frustrations attendant on this partnership resonate with the larger successes and failures of contemporary democratic societies. His purpose in this collection of essays is to illuminate the conditions under which intellectuals in a democracy work and at the same time to promote intellectual activities that further democratic ideals.
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Date de parution

15 mars 2018

Nombre de lectures

0

EAN13

9781501720963

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

5 Mo

DEMOCRACY'S CHILDREN
DEMOCRACY'SCHILDREN I N T E L L E C T U A L SA N D T HE RI SEOF C U L T U R A L P O L I T I C S
JOHNMcGOWAN
Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.
Copyright © 2002 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850, or visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.
First published 2002 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2002
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McGowan, John Democracy’s children : intellectuals and the rise of cultural politics / John McGowan.  p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-3973-5 (cloth) — ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-8766-8 (pbk.) 1. Criticism—History—20th century. 2. Criticism—Political aspects—History— 20th century. 3. College teaching—United States. 4. Intellectual life—History— 20th century. I. Title. PN94 .M35 2001 801′.95′0904—dc21 2001005519
The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Cover illustration: Painting with Statue of Liberty, by Roy Lichtenstein. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, National Gallery of Art. Photograph © 2001 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
For Kiernan and Siobhan
"Earth's the right place fo r love: I don't know where it's likely to go better."
Contents
Preface, vii Introduction: Literary Intellectuals in and for a Democratic Society, 1
C L IM B IN G TH E W A L L S: TH E IN T E L L E C T U A L A S A C A D E M IC
l. At the 1986 MLA Convention, 31 2. Teaching Literature: Where, How, and Why, 49 3. An ABCs of Post-Theoretical Style, 74 4. Humanists, Cultural Authority, and the University, 114
I I . R O A D S TO T H E P R E S E N T , P A T H S TO A F U T U R E
5. Modernity and Culture: The Victorians and Cultural Studies, 141 6. The Narrative of Culture: A Burkean Perspective, 165 7. Toward a Pragmatist Pluralism, 201
References, 231 Index, 239
Preface
My remarks are addressed to those, who by their use of speech and through their explicit formulation of general ideas, have been able or are now able to attempt to have an influence on how their society evolves and the course of history. —Cu so r n e l i  Csa d i a s t o r i
This book is about the vicissitudes of intellectual practice, viewed from a pragmatist and pluralist perspective. Most of the essays concern U.S. literary intellectuals over the past thirty years. But this provincial focus is expanded in the last three chapters. In every case, I strive to identify the aspirations and strategies of those contemporary humanistic intellec-tuals who want their work to intervene in the political and cultural for-mations of our time. I am interested in situating such intellectuals within the institutional setting—the academy—in which they almost all work and within the more general culture that they wish to influence. And I am interested in locating their favored method of intervention—cultural pol-itics—alongside other political strategies. The results of examinations can look dismissive. But I count myself among these intellectuals whom I am attempting to describe, explain, and assess. So my emphasis on the difficulties, obstacles, and contradictions of this enterprise is not meant to belittle it. But I also do not think there is any self-evident legitimacy or virtue attached to the intellectuals' efforts. There is nothing pure or simple about intellectual work, from its motives to its
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