Upward Mobility and the Common Good

Upward Mobility and the Common Good
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 324
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781400827657
ISBN-13 : 1400827655
Rating : 4/5 (57 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Upward Mobility and the Common Good by : Bruce Robbins

Download or read book Upward Mobility and the Common Good written by Bruce Robbins and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-12-21 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We think we know what upward mobility stories are about--virtuous striving justly rewarded, or unprincipled social climbing regrettably unpunished. Either way, these stories seem obviously concerned with the self-making of self-reliant individuals rather than with any collective interest. In Upward Mobility and the Common Good, Bruce Robbins completely overturns these assumptions to expose a hidden tradition of erotic social interdependence at the heart of the literary canon. Reinterpreting novels by figures such as Balzac, Stendhal, Charlotte Brontë, Dickens, Dreiser, Wells, Doctorow, and Ishiguro, along with a number of films, Robbins shows how deeply the material and erotic desires of upwardly mobile characters are intertwined with the aid they receive from some sort of benefactor or mentor. In his view, Hannibal Lecter of The Silence of the Lambs becomes a key figure of social mobility in our time. Robbins argues that passionate and ambiguous relationships (like that between Lecter and Clarice Starling) carry the upward mobility story far from anyone's simple self-interest, whether the protagonist's or the mentor's. Robbins concludes that upward mobility stories have paradoxically helped American and European society make the transition from an ethic of individual responsibility to one of collective accountability, a shift that made the welfare state possible, but that also helps account for society's fascination with cases of sexual abuse and harassment by figures of authority.


Upward Mobility and the Common Good Related Books

Upward Mobility and the Common Good
Language: en
Pages: 324
Authors: Bruce Robbins
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-12-21 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

We think we know what upward mobility stories are about--virtuous striving justly rewarded, or unprincipled social climbing regrettably unpunished. Either way,
Moving Up Without Losing Your Way
Language: en
Pages: 190
Authors: Jennifer M. Morton
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-04-20 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Upward mobility through the path of higher education has been an article of faith for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant college students.
For the Common Good?
Language: en
Pages: 308
Authors: Jason Kaufman
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2003-08-07 - Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"The Golden Age of Fraternity was a unique time in American history. In the forty years between the Civil War and the onset of World War I, more than half of al
Ambivalent Embrace
Language: en
Pages: 233
Authors: Rachel Kranson
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-09-19 - Publisher: UNC Press Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This new cultural history of Jewish life and identity in the United States after World War II focuses on the process of upward mobility. Rachel Kranson challeng
The Tyranny of Merit
Language: en
Pages: 288
Authors: Michael J. Sandel
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-09-15 - Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Times Literary Supplement’s Book of the Year 2020 A New Statesman's Best Book of 2020 A Bloomberg's Best Book of 2020 A Guardian Best Book About Ideas of 20