Rethinking Fiction after the 2007/8 Financial Crisis: Consumption, Economics, and the American Dream

The book explores how the 2007/8 financial crisis and the Great Recession impacted American fiction, focusing on four books that present issues such as poverty, wealth, equality, distinction, opportunity, and genre and interpretation. It also examines how the novels highlight the decreasing social mobility of Americans.

Format: Hardback
Length: 196 pages
Publication date: 30 March 2021
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book delves into the profound impact of the 2007/8 financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession on American fiction. By employing an interdisciplinary approach that seamlessly blends literary studies with anthropology, economics, sociology, and psychology, the author aims to assess the transformative changes facilitated by the crisis in the American novel. The study focuses on a select quartet of books: Elizabeth Strouts My Name Is Lucy Barton, Philipp Meyers American Rust, Sophie McManuss The Unfortunates, and William Gibsons The Peripheral. Through a meticulous analysis of these works, the study traces how they present and explore themes such as poverty, wealth, equality, distinction, opportunity, and their interconnectedness with traditional critiques of consumer culture and the US economy, particularly those issues that have gained heightened attention due to the crisis. Additionally, the book delves into the issue of genre and interpretation during this period, as well as the innovative methods employed by the analyzed novels to highlight the declining social mobility of Americans.

This book delves into the profound impact of the 2007/8 financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession on American fiction.

By employing an interdisciplinary approach that seamlessly blends literary studies with anthropology, economics, sociology, and psychology, the author aims to assess the transformative changes facilitated by the crisis in the American novel.

The study focuses on a select quartet of books: Elizabeth Strouts My Name Is Lucy Barton, Philipp Meyers American Rust, Sophie McManuss The Unfortunates, and William Gibsons The Peripheral.

Through a meticulous analysis of these works, the study traces how they present and explore themes such as poverty, wealth, equality, distinction, opportunity, and their interconnectedness with traditional critiques of consumer culture and the US economy, particularly those issues that have gained heightened attention due to the crisis.

Additionally, the book delves into the issue of genre and interpretation during this period, as well as the innovative methods employed by the analyzed novels to highlight the declining social mobility of Americans.

Weight: 440g
Dimension: 156 x 236 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367692117