Fiction Sets You Free: Literature, Liberty, and Western Culture (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781587296048)

In what can only be called a genuine intellectual adventure, Russell Berman raises fundamental questions long ignored by literary scholars; Why does literature command our attention at all? Why would society want to cultivate a sphere of activity devoted to the careful study of literary fiction? Written as a tonic to what he calls the debilitating cultural relativism of contemporary literary studies, Fiction Sets You Free advances the innovative argument that literature and capitalism, rather than representing merely commercialization, actually belie a long and positive association: literary autonomy is a central part of modern Western culture, thoroughly intertwined with political democracy and free market capitalism.

Author: Russell A. Berman
ISBN-10: 1587296047
ISBN-13: 9781587296048
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Language: English
Published: 12/01/2007
Pages: 270
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.12lbs
Size: 9.16h x 6.44w x 0.87d