TY - GEN T1 - Reading for reform : the social work of literature in the Progressive Era T2 - Book collections on Project MUSE. A1 - Fisher, Laura R. LA - English PP - Minneapolis ; London PB - University of Minnesota Press YR - 2019 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_eba_on1048659824 AB - "An unprecedented examination of class-bridging reform and U.S. literary history at the turn of the twentieth century Reading for Reform rewrites the literary history of late nineteenth and early twentieth century America by putting social reform institutions at the center of literary and cultural analysis. Examining the vibrant, often fractious literary cultures that developed as part of the Progressive mandate to uplift the socially disadvantaged, it shows that in these years reformers saw literature as a way to combat the myriad social problems that plagued modern U.S. society. As they developed distinctly literary methods for Americanizing immigrants, uplifting and refining wage-earning women, and educating black students, their institutions gave rise to a new social purpose for literature. Class-bridging reform institutions--the urban settlement house, working girls' club, and African American college--are rarely addressed in literary history. Yet, Laura R. Fisher argues, they engendered important experiments in the form and social utility of American literature, from minor texts of Yiddish drama and little-known periodical and reform writers to the fiction of Edith Wharton and Nella Larsen. Fisher delves into reform's vast and largely unexplored institutional archives to show how dynamic sites of modern literary culture developed at the margins of social power. Fisher reveals how reformist approaches to race, class, religion, and gender formation shaped American literature between the 1880s and the 1920s. In doing so, she tells a new story about the fate of literary practice, and the idea of literature's practical value, during the very years that modernist authors were proclaiming art's autonomy from concepts of social utility." OP - 307 CN - PS223 .F574 2019 SN - 9781452960357 SN - 1452960356 SN - 1517903823 SN - 9781517903824 SN - 1517903831 SN - 9781517903831 SN - 9781452960364 SN - 1452960364 KW - American literature : 20th century : History and criticism. KW - Literature and society : United States : History : 20th century. KW - Books and reading : Social aspects : United States : History : 20th century. KW - Social problems : United States : History : 20th century. KW - Littérature américaine : 20e siècle : Histoire et critique. KW - Littérature et société : États-Unis : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - Livres et lecture : Aspect social : États-Unis : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - Problèmes sociaux : États-Unis : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - LITERARY CRITICISM : American : General. KW - HISTORY : United States : 20th Century. KW - American literature KW - Books and reading : Social aspects KW - Literature and society KW - Social problems KW - United States KW - 1900-1999 KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc. KW - History ER -