Framing the Margins: The Social Logic of Postmodern Culture [Paperback]

Phillip Brian Harper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0195082397 | ISBN-13: 978-0195082395

This dramatic rereading of postmodernism seeks to broaden current theoretical conceptions of the movement as both a social-philosophical condition and a literary and cultural phenomenon. Phil Harper contends that the fragmentation considered to be characteristic of the postmodern age can in fact be traced to the status of marginalized groups in the United States since long before the contemporary era. This status is reflected in the work of American writers from the thirties through the fifties whom Harper addresses in this study, including Nathanael West, Ana�s Nin, Djuna Barnes, Ralph Ellison, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Treating groups that are disadvantaged or disempowered whether by circumstance of gender, race, or sexual orientation, the writers profiled here occupy the cusp between the modern and the postmodern; between the recognizably modernist aesthetic of alienation and the fragmented, disordered sensibility of postmodernism. Proceeding through close readings of these literary texts in relation to various mass-cultural productions, Harper examines the social placement of the texts in the scope of literary history while analyzing more minutely the interior effects of marginalization implied by the fictional characters enacting these narratives. In particular, he demonstrates how these works represent the experience of social marginality as highly fractured and fracturing, and indicates how such experience is implicated in the phenomenon of postmodernist fragmentation. Harper thus accomplishes the vital task of recentering cultural focus on issues and groups that are decentered by very definition, and thereby specifies the sociopolitical significance of postmodernism in a way that has not yet been done.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Highly recommended for all academic libraries."--Choice

"Phillip Brian Harper's book is the most cogent move yet in literary criticism to revise what is, by now, a canonical version of postmodernism. In arguing for the anticipation of postmodernism's themes by writers excluded from centrality within the modernist tradition, his study gives true social depth and historical meaning to the often rote usage of terms like `marginality' and `minority.'"--Andrew Ross, New York University

"Framing the Margins is an unusually lucid book of scholarship, understated but arresting. Any reader of contemporary literature will be challenged by Harper's ideas, and all parties involved in the `culture wars' should heed his voice."--Harvard Review

"Framing the Margins is a bold contribution to the re-evaluation of twentieth century American cultural evolution."--Journal of American Studies

"Harper's book seeks at once to broaden our understanding of the postmodern condition and to make our discussion of it more complex and specific....In the breadth of its readings and the rigor of its argument, Framing the Margins is one of the most illuminating books on postmodernism that I have read..."--Papers on Language and Literature

About the Author

Phillip Brian Harper is at Harvard University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 6, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195082397
• ISBN-13: 978-0195082395
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,751,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.