The Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-Century American Literature Contributor(s): Ladyga, Zuzanna (Author) |
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ISBN: 1474442927 ISBN-13: 9781474442923 Publisher: Edinburgh University Press OUR PRICE: $118.75 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: August 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - General - Literary Criticism | Modern - 20th Century - Literary Criticism | Subjects & Themes - General |
LCCN: 2019297699 |
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.6" W x 8.6" (1.05 lbs) 296 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Analyses the theme of laziness in twentieth-century American Literature
The Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-Century American Literature focuses on the issue of productivity, using the figure of laziness to negotiate the relation between the ethical and the aesthetic. This book argues that major twentieth-century American writers such as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and David Foster Wallace provocatively challenge the ethos of productivity by filtering their ethical interventions through culturally stigmatised imagery of laziness. Ladyga argues that when the motif of laziness appears, it invariably reveals the underpinnings of an emerging value system at a given historical moment, while at the same time offering a glimpse into the strategies of rebelling against the status quo. |