The Novel of Human Rights Contributor(s): Dawes, James (Author) |
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ISBN: 067498644X ISBN-13: 9780674986442 Publisher: Harvard University Press OUR PRICE: $42.75 Product Type: Hardcover Published: September 2018 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Subjects & Themes - Politics - Literary Criticism | Modern - 21st Century - Political Science | Human Rights |
Dewey: 809.393 |
LCCN: 2018001853 |
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.1" W x 9.4" (1.10 lbs) 240 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 21st Century |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The Novel of Human Rights defines a new, dynamic American literary genre. It incorporates key debates within the contemporary human rights movement in the United States, and in turn influences the ideas and rhetoric of that discourse. In James Dawes's framing, the novel of human rights takes as its theme a range of atrocities at home and abroad, scrambling the distinction between human rights within and beyond national borders. Some novels critique America's conception of human rights by pointing out U.S. exploitation of international crises. Other novels endorse an American ethos of individualism and citizenship as the best hope for global equality. Some narratives depict human rights workers as responding to an urgent ethical necessity, while others see only inefficient institutions dedicated to their own survival. Surveying the work of Chris Abani, Susan Choi, Edwidge Danticat, Dave Eggers, Nathan Englander, Francisco Goldman, Anthony Marra, and John Edgar Wideman, among others, Dawes finds traces of slave narratives, Holocaust literature, war novels, and expatriate novels, along with earlier traditions of justice writing. The novel of human rights responds to deep forces within America's politics, society, and culture, Dawes shows. His illuminating study clarifies many ethical dilemmas of today's local and global politics and helps us think our way, through them, to a better future. Vibrant and modern, the human rights novel reflects our own time and aspires to shape the world we will leave for those who come after. |
Contributor Bio(s): Dawes, James: - James Dawes is DeWitt Wallace Professor of English at Macalester College. |