American modernism and depression documentary
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Copy number Shelfmark Shelf mark R017846 Ned. Fotomuseum $T ALLRED.J 2009
TitleAmerican modernism and depression documentary
Author
Place of publicationOxford
PublisherOxford University Press
Year of publication2009
Paginationviii, 272 p.
Illustrationsb&w
Dimensions24 x 17 cm.
MaterialTekstboek
Document TypeBook
ISBN9780195335682
Bibliographic NotesIncludes bibliographical references (p. 245-257) and index.
SubjectLiteratuur en fotografie, Geschiedenis en fotografie: USA, Politiek en fotografie: USA, Geschiedenis van het fotoboek: USA
Abstract
We cite from the COVER:
"Photos filled with the forlorn faces of hungry and impoverished Americans that came to characterize the desolation of the Great Depression are among the best-known artworks of the twentieth century. Captured by the camera's eye, these stark depictions of suffering became iconic markers of a formative period in U.S. history. Although there has been an ample amount of critical inquiry on Depression-era photographs, the bulk of scholarship treats them as isolated art objects. And yet they were often joined together with evocative writing in a genre that flourished amid the period, the documentary book. American Modernism and Depression Documentary looks at the tradition of the hybrid, verbal-visual texts that flourished during a time when U.S. citizens were becoming increasingly conscious of the life of a larger nation."
Jeff Allred draws on a range of seminal works to illustrate the convergence of modernism and documentary, two forms often regarded as unrelated. Whereas critics routinely look to James Agee and Walker Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men as the sole instance of the modernist documentary book, Allred turns to such works as Richard Wright's scathing 12 Million Black Voices, and the oft-neglected You Have Seen Their Faces by Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White to open up the critical playing field. And rather than focusing on the ethos of Progressivism and/or the politics and aesthetics of the New Deal, Allred emphasizes the centrality of Life magazine to the consolidation of a novel cultural form."
"In a series of provocative and thoughtful case studies, Allred reveals how documentary texts invite readers to engage in a speculative practice of aesthetic construction. Thus the genre brought an increasing awareness of the nation's artistic vitality as well as its social failings. Carefully argued and rigorously researched, American Modernism and Depression Documentary establishes the documentary book as a major form that constitutes a critical legacy of both modernism and Depression-era culture."
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CONTENTS:
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Introduction: Plausible fictions of the real --
From 'culture' to 'cultural work': literature and labor between the wars --
The road to somewhere: locating knowledge in Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White's You have seen their faces (1937) --
Moving violations: stasis and mobility in James Agee's and Walker Evans's Let us now praise famous men (1941) --
From eye to we: Richard Wright's 12 million black voices, documentary, and pedagogy --
'We Americans': Henry Luce, life, and the mind-guided camera --
Epilogue: depression documentary and the knot of history.
"Photos filled with the forlorn faces of hungry and impoverished Americans that came to characterize the desolation of the Great Depression are among the best-known artworks of the twentieth century. Captured by the camera's eye, these stark depictions of suffering became iconic markers of a formative period in U.S. history. Although there has been an ample amount of critical inquiry on Depression-era photographs, the bulk of scholarship treats them as isolated art objects. And yet they were often joined together with evocative writing in a genre that flourished amid the period, the documentary book. American Modernism and Depression Documentary looks at the tradition of the hybrid, verbal-visual texts that flourished during a time when U.S. citizens were becoming increasingly conscious of the life of a larger nation."
Jeff Allred draws on a range of seminal works to illustrate the convergence of modernism and documentary, two forms often regarded as unrelated. Whereas critics routinely look to James Agee and Walker Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men as the sole instance of the modernist documentary book, Allred turns to such works as Richard Wright's scathing 12 Million Black Voices, and the oft-neglected You Have Seen Their Faces by Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White to open up the critical playing field. And rather than focusing on the ethos of Progressivism and/or the politics and aesthetics of the New Deal, Allred emphasizes the centrality of Life magazine to the consolidation of a novel cultural form."
"In a series of provocative and thoughtful case studies, Allred reveals how documentary texts invite readers to engage in a speculative practice of aesthetic construction. Thus the genre brought an increasing awareness of the nation's artistic vitality as well as its social failings. Carefully argued and rigorously researched, American Modernism and Depression Documentary establishes the documentary book as a major form that constitutes a critical legacy of both modernism and Depression-era culture."
*
CONTENTS:
*
Introduction: Plausible fictions of the real --
From 'culture' to 'cultural work': literature and labor between the wars --
The road to somewhere: locating knowledge in Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White's You have seen their faces (1937) --
Moving violations: stasis and mobility in James Agee's and Walker Evans's Let us now praise famous men (1941) --
From eye to we: Richard Wright's 12 million black voices, documentary, and pedagogy --
'We Americans': Henry Luce, life, and the mind-guided camera --
Epilogue: depression documentary and the knot of history.
| Copy number | R017846 |
| Institution name | |
| Shelf mark | $T ALLRED.J 2009 |