American tantalus : horizons, happiness, and the impossible pursuits of US literature and culture /

"American Tantalus argues that modern US fictions often grow preoccupied by tantalisation. This keyword might seem commonplace; thesauruses, certainly, often lump it in with tease and torment in their general inventories of desire. Such lists, however, mislead. Just as most US dictionaries have...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Warnes, Andrew, 1974- (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	New York, NY : Bloomsbury, 2014.
Subjects:	American literature > History and criticism. Desire in literature. Teasing in literature. Searching behavior in literature. Material culture in literature. Consumption (Economics) in literature. National characteristics, American, in literature. Modernism (Literature) > United States. LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory. SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies. LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General.

Table of Contents:

Machine generated contents note:
Introduction: Do Not Touch 1. Of Horizons and Happiness: Untouchable Objects in Leading US Myth 2. The Becoming Blank: Fantasies of Invisibility after the Frontier 3. Play Things: Toys at the Edge of Whiteness 4. Of Cars and Hotels: The Compensations of Destructive Consumption. Conclusion: After American Tantalus