The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature

The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature

â€œThe bourgeois ... Not so long ago, this notion seemed indispensable to social analysis; these days, one might go years without hearing it mentioned. Capitalism is more powerful than ever, but its human embodiment seems to have vanished. â€˜I am a member of the bourgeois class, feel myself to be such, and have been brought up on its opinions and ideals,â€™ wrote Max Weber, in 1895. Who could repeat these words today? Bourgeois â€˜opinions and idealsâ€™â€”what are they?â€

Thus begins Franco Morettiâ€™s study of the bourgeois in modern European literatureâ€”a major new analysis of the once-dominant culture and its literary decline and fall. Morettiâ€™s gallery of individual portraits is entwined with the analysis of specific keywordsâ€”â€œusefulâ€ and â€œearnest,â€ â€œefficiency,â€ â€œinfluence,â€ â€œcomfort,â€ â€œrobaâ€â€”and of the formal mutations of the medium of prose. From the â€œworking masterâ€ of the opening chapter, through the seriousness of nineteenth-century novels, the conservative hegemony of Victorian Britain, the â€œnational malformationsâ€ of the Southern and Eastern periphery, and the radical self-critique of Ibsenâ€™s twelve-play cycle, the book charts the vicissitudes of bourgeois culture, exploring the causes for its historical weakness, and for its current irrelevance.
Country USA
Brand Verso
Manufacturer Verso Books
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber black & white illustrations, figures
Color Black
ReleaseDate 2014-08-05
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781781683040

Country	USA
Brand	Verso
Manufacturer	Verso Books
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	black & white illustrations, figures
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	2014-08-05
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781781683040

The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature

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