{"product_id":"frantic-panoramas-nancy-bentley-9780812241747","title":"Frantic Panoramas: American Literature and Mass Culture, 187-192","description":"\u003cp\u003eLate nineteenth-century America saw an explosion in mass culture--from sensationalist tabloid newspapers to amusement parks to Wild West shows. Historians and critics have traditionally observed the advent of mass culture as undermining literature's central role in the public sphere. Literary writers of the time either reacted with a public show of disdain or retreated to conduct their own private experiments in style and form. In \u003ci\u003eFrantic Panoramas\u003c\/i\u003e, Nancy Bentley questions these narratives of opposition. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor literary writers, Bentley explains, the confrontation with mass culture was less a retreat than a transformation, an ordeal through which habits of contemplative appreciation could be refashioned into new forms of critical thought. By grappling with the energies that marked mass culture, authors came to recognize kinds of human experience that were only then becoming visible as public. William Dean Howells shaped the plots of his novels around tabloid events like rail and trolley accidents and the public chaos of apartment house fires. Although Henry James was distressed at the way dime fiction had changed the very definition of literature, his meditations on mass culture led him to reimagine the novel as a collective \"workshop\" in which authors and readers jointly discovered new meaning. Bentley offers close readings of these and other writers such as Edith Wharton, James Weldon Johnson, Pauline Hopkins, and Gertrude Bonnin to demonstrate how leading artists took inspiration from commercial culture to create new and distinct literary forms. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing on original archival research and a historically grounded theory of realism, \u003ci\u003eFrantic Panoramas\u003c\/i\u003e is an innovative and comprehensive study of how the emergence of mass culture affected literary culture in America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Nancy Bentley\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0812241746\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780812241747\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Pennsylvania Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/16\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 376\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.10w x 1.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2009","brand":"Nancy Bentley","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43926360883455,"sku":"9780812241747","price":74.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_4cc66d95-adcc-4c8f-ac04-778037638d45.jpg?v=1681082646","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/frantic-panoramas-nancy-bentley-9780812241747","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}