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Entertaining Reformers: Social Refor...

Arnold, Esther.

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Entertaining Reformers: Social Reform and Recreation in American Literature and Silent Film, 1840--1915.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Entertaining Reformers: Social Reform and Recreation in American Literature and Silent Film, 1840--1915./
Author:	Arnold, Esther.
Description:	367 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 75-02(E), Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertation Abstracts International75-02A(E).
Subject:	Literature, American. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3600352
ISBN:	9781303504471

Entertaining Reformers: Social Reform and Recreation in American Literature and Silent Film, 1840--1915.
Arnold, Esther.

Entertaining Reformers: Social Reform and Recreation in American Literature and Silent Film, 1840--1915. - 367 p.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 75-02(E), Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Rochester, 2013.

This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.

Entertaining Reformers argues that representations of social reformers in American literature and film, 1840--1915, are united in their fascination with the tension between modern amusements and the practice of reform. I consider how texts of this period both depict reformers' concerns about amusements and offer reformers as amusing subject matter for audiences. Reflecting and manipulating the contradictory tendencies of domestic ideology and an emerging culture of professionalism in their approaches to reform and recreation, these literary and cinematic entertainments lie at the intersection of gender, politics, and aesthetics. During this time, reformers increasingly stressed efficiency and pursued change through professional and governmental means. Meanwhile, they were surrounded by and sometimes portrayed in an array of commercial amusements, a trend that unsettled them even as it echoed their modernizing tendencies. Literature and films often depict reformers who try to assert their commitment and, in the process, undergo a crisis in ethical and aesthetic values. Often economically and socially privileged, these figures of reform are imagined seeking to channel their sympathetic interest in social issues into the ascetic work of reform. Evaluating their own and others' uses of recreation, they try to avoid, manage, or responsibly enjoy amusements as they take on heavy responsibilities.

ISBN: 9781303504471Subjects--Topical Terms:

1017657
Literature, American.

Entertaining Reformers: Social Reform and Recreation in American Literature and Silent Film, 1840--1915.
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100 1 $a Arnold, Esther. $3 3171975
245 1 0 $a Entertaining Reformers: Social Reform and Recreation in American Literature and Silent Film, 1840--1915.
300 $a 367 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 75-02(E), Section: A.
500 $a Adviser: John Michael.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Rochester, 2013.
506 $a This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
520 $a Entertaining Reformers argues that representations of social reformers in American literature and film, 1840--1915, are united in their fascination with the tension between modern amusements and the practice of reform. I consider how texts of this period both depict reformers' concerns about amusements and offer reformers as amusing subject matter for audiences. Reflecting and manipulating the contradictory tendencies of domestic ideology and an emerging culture of professionalism in their approaches to reform and recreation, these literary and cinematic entertainments lie at the intersection of gender, politics, and aesthetics. During this time, reformers increasingly stressed efficiency and pursued change through professional and governmental means. Meanwhile, they were surrounded by and sometimes portrayed in an array of commercial amusements, a trend that unsettled them even as it echoed their modernizing tendencies. Literature and films often depict reformers who try to assert their commitment and, in the process, undergo a crisis in ethical and aesthetic values. Often economically and socially privileged, these figures of reform are imagined seeking to channel their sympathetic interest in social issues into the ascetic work of reform. Evaluating their own and others' uses of recreation, they try to avoid, manage, or responsibly enjoy amusements as they take on heavy responsibilities.
520 $a My chapters chart a tradition in the representation of reform that connects the antebellum journalistic sketch, the pre- and postwar novel, and the narrative film through entertainment. My first chapter argues that through the motif of the magic lantern, Lydia Maria Child's Letters from New-York considers how experience with amusements can condition us to treat others like shadows on a screen rather than complex human beings; yet, Child urges, by scrutinizing this tendency we can overcome it and channel aesthetic resources into practical reform. Chapter 2 argues that Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance portrays Transcendentalist utopianism as picturesque but associates more aggressive approaches to reform with the force of machines and exploitative practices of the entertainment industry. Chapter 3 argues that Frances Harper's Iola Leroy uses the entertaining form of the novel to define the reformer as a serious professional willing to set pleasure aside. Highlighting the demeaning aspects of certain amusements, it promotes asceticism as it depicts African-American elites who commit to reform. My last chapter argues that the silent film Regeneration emphasizes the physicality of settlement work through action scenes that take place amidst entertainments. The film obscures settlement workers' professionalism yet curiously echoes their written accounts of the adventurous aspects of their work.
590 $a School code: 0188.
650 4 $a Literature, American. $3 1017657
650 4 $a Cinema. $3 854529
650 4 $a American studies. $3 2122720
690 $a 0591
690 $a 0900
690 $a 0323
710 2 $a University of Rochester. $b Arts and Sciences. $3 3171976
773 0 $t Dissertation Abstracts International $g 75-02A(E).
790 $a 0188
791 $a Ph.D.
792 $a 2013
793 $a English
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3600352